Reaction of E-commerce And Related Companies to Budget 2016!

 Soumitra Gupta, CEO, Togofogo

“We appreciate the Finance Minister’s move on Tax holiday for startups as every startup takes minimum three of five years to setting up the company. We welcome the effort by Indian government for startup industry. It will give a strategic boost to the current ratio of Indian entrepreneurs and will support the Startup India campaign by Modi Government.”

Swati Bhargava, Co-Founder, CashKaro.com

“I would view this budget to have a positive push to industries across the board. This budget focuses clearly on growth, development and job creation with particular focus on empowering the rural sector. In January, Narendra Modi, Prime Minister, India had launched ‘Startup India, Standup India’ initiative with the motive to take this sector to a new horizon. Clearly, this budget is in all support to the initiative. The government has allocated a Rs 500 crore corpus for its Stand-Up India scheme, which was announced in January, to stimulate innovation and startup activity by women and SC/ST entrepreneurs. This will bolster entrepreneurship for SC/ST and as per estimates will benefit 2.5 lakh plus entrepreneurs.

Corporate tax for companies with turnover not exceeding Rs 5 crore has been reduced to 29% plus surcharge and cess. This is a welcome advantage in union to last year’s promise of gradual reduction of corporate tax from 30 per cent to 25 per cent over four years and hence will encourage more to start up.

The most positive move and certainly a thumping gift from Arun Jaitley, Finance Minister, India is the announcement of the 100% tax deduction program for three years over a period of five years for startups approved FY2019 under the ‘Startup India, Standup India’ scheme. This move is going to spark a new energy in the startup sector of the country as it is expected to raise US $700 million and will generate around 5000 jobs in the next 12 months.

Also, an amendment in The Companies Act as proposed in the budget will allow startups to be registered in a day; will be huge relief. Earlier the registration used to take more than a month which was quite taxing. The icing on the cake is the support from The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) giving some positive indications that it will be easing out few foreign investment norms to back up the startup sector of this country.

Overall this is a balanced growth oriented budget with focus on accelerating on the fundamentals”.

 Mr. Danish Ahmed, CEO, Shopsity

 “Allowing retailers to open 24×7 is a very good move, in an otherwise regular budget. This will enable retailers to compete better with ecommerce stores and cater to more late night shopping. In the middle east, shopping between 8pm to 12am contributes significantly to overall sales and similar trends will develop in India, boosting overall retail, specially in summers.”

 

Mr. Prasoon Gupta, Founder and Director, Sattviko

”  100% deduction on profits for startups for 3 years will not help them much as not all the startups earn profits initially. Entrepreneurship, Education, training to be provided through Massive Open Online Courses will help the aspiring entrepreneurs from remote areas, who don’t get sufficient knowledge and guidance. Many sunrise industries including tourism and hospitality were expecting sector specific announcement in this budget”

Mr. Kishore Ganji, Serial Investor, Founder & CEO, Zip.in

 “The news about 100% FDI in food products produced and marketed in India spells a ray of hope for the food industry and the online grocery sector in particular. In the midst of farmer unrest, this development will successfully address their concerns by ensuring that their fruits and veggies get the right price and are delivered to the final sale points in the markets without any glitches. With the intervention of FIPB, the food processing industry and trade will surely see a boost. Keeping all this in mind, we’re sure we will be able to add more home-grown products on our platform that were originally losing out due to poor publicity and management.”

Kiran Murthi, CEO, AskmeBazaar

“Honourable Finance Minister has presented a business friendly budget which is encouraging for young and fast growing India. Taking the “Start-up India” action plan forward, the budget allocated Rs. 500 cr for SC/ST & Women entrepreneurs. The announcements made during the budget also include a 100 per cent tax exemption for 3 years for start-ups, which is a welcome step. The Minister also proposed an amendment of Companies Act to allow new start-ups to register in one day. These steps will help to create a favorable business environment in the country.

We welcome this budget as a progressive step in the right direction with an intention to promote entrepreneurship and encouraging start-ups in India.

 Also, the Finance Minister reiterated the Government’s focus on rolling out GST. We are hopeful that GST will be a reality soon, thereby ensuring uniformity in tax rates and regulations.

Overall, we are positive that the announcements made today will lead to strong economic growth of the country.”

Sumit Chhazed, Co-Founder, CredR

“The Union Budget 2016 did not have much to look out for the start-up community, as we were hopeful to see some on-ground initiatives from the government to further ease regulatory clearances policies. Prime Minister’s declaration of 100% tax deductions for new startups for first 3 years is definitely an optimistic move towards nurturing entrepreneurship and facilitating ease of doing business. Government’s effort to provide skill development and training to youth along with implementation of digital literacy will help further providing a boost to the start-up ecosystem. We are hopeful to see more immediate action from the government in fostering a conducive environment for the entrepreneur community.”

Govind Rajan, COO, FreeCharge 

“Fair price shops are lifeline of India, especially in tier 2 and beyond markets. Government’s proposal to automate 3 lakh Fair Price Shops is a great step towards the overall Digital India agenda. This will streamline the processes within these shops and will make it easier for consumers to make purchases. With the recent announcement by Government around waiving off surcharge and convenience fee, this move will further open up the scope for automation of payments at Fair Price Shops by embracing new forms of digital payments like wallets.  We are also excited to see Government’s push towards research & innovation and 80% discount on filing patent applications by start-ups will further see new home-grown innovations coming from start-ups. This will  not only  bolster the ‘Start-up India, Stand-Up India’ initiative but also create a great environment for tech innovation in  the country.”

Also Read-