What biz honchos are expecting from Budget 2017

Know the expectations of biz honchos from upcoming Budget.

The Budget 2017 is just round the corner. Everyone has their own set of expectations from the upcoming Budget.

Below are the biz honchos' expectations from the Budget. Take a look!

Himanshu Malik, Founder and CEO, Glitzzerr.com

"Infrastructure development is a pre-requisite to provide the much-needed impetus for our nation’s growth. Therefore, to support long-term economic development, the government should focus on upgrading the digital infrastructure. Also, steps should be taken to promote digital literacy and connect cities, towns and villages with high-speed internet networks.Additionally, we can expect incentives on direct tax. This could mean lower personal income tax rates and lower corporate tax rates. The budget should reduce corporate tax rate from 35 to 25 percent for startups and companies promoting digital payments ecosystem. It should also incentivize start-ups by widening the tax-free regime from three years to five years with faster procedural clearances.Alongside, as an e-commerce startup, we look forward to receiving more clarity for FDI in B2C e-commerce through a digital route."

Ashish Shah, CEO and Founder, Vertoz Media Pvt Ltd.

“There is hope that there will be some incentive announcements to further popularize the digital initiatives of the government. Being a pure AdTech firm we are very optimistic on the government’s vision of ‘Digital India’. We expect to see a growth oriented budget on February 1, 2017.

The government has been encouraging entrepreneurship among the younger generation with its flagship initiative - ‘Startup India’ and keep up the momentum this time as well. More entrepreneurs in the ecosystem will drive sustainable economic growth and generate more job opportunities.”

Ramki Gaddipati, CTO & Co-founder of Zeta

 “As digital payments take off, we'd like this year's budget to focus on financial inclusion. We hope the Government of India reduces indirect taxes and charges levied on digital transactions. Further, income tax incentives should be provided to people who use digital payment options. It's also time that digital payment and documents be treated legally on par with physical instruments. We also hope that the Government increases the ceilings on employee tax benefits as they're now quite overdue. To aid merchants, the Merchant Discount Rate on card payments should be abolished. The industry can also benefit from tax incentives provided to organisations operating in the digital payments space.”

Dewang Neralla, MD & CEO, Atom Technologies

“With the backdrop of demonetization, upcoming Union Budget holds key for the digital payments industry. Considering the current scenario, I think it is perfect time that payments should be treated as core infrastructure and payment gateway providers also should be provided tax breaks on service tax, on corporate tax etc. for a limited period and government should also mandate digital payments for specific industry segments such as C2G payments etc. To minimize risk and fraud, a central KYC registry for merchants should be set up and insurance scheme to  be created for handling merchant and/or transactional fraud which is non-existent now.  Government should also look at creating Payment Technology Parks where facilities and benefits can be provided similar to STPs."