Budget 2023: Will Startups Get GST Relief? MSMEs Demand More

As the Indian economy continues to recover from the impact of the pandemic, all eyes are now on the upcoming 2023-24 budget announcement. 

Experts from various industries are eagerly awaiting the government's plans and policies, as they hope for measures that will further boost growth and development in their respective sectors. From the agriculture sector to the manufacturing industry, each has its own set of expectations and aspirations for the budget. 

Read on to discover the diverse expectations from industry experts as they weigh in on what they hope to see in the budget 2023-24.

Increased Fund Allocation For MSME

Anushka Iyer, Founder and CEO of Wiggles, a petcare startup company, hopes for increased fund allocation towards supporting the MSME sector. "With the 2023 budget, as a startup founder, I hope that the government continues to increase fund allocation towards supporting the MSME sector. As more MSMEs are coming up, they are one of the major contributors to the country's economic growth", Iyer said. 

"We are excited about ONDC as it has the potential to fundamentally improve the customer's experience of discovering brands digitally. This also helps in setting up a vision and products and sales increase. The impact that the budget has on the growth of the platform will directly affect many companies like us. We are looking forward to the Budget and expecting an increase with more attention towards the startup sector,”  she added.

Subsidy for Drone Pilots

Agnishwar Jayaprakash, Founder and CEO of Garuda Aerospace, an Indian drone manufacturer, expects the government to provide more subsidies for drone pilots for their training and skilling programs, in partnership with government organizations. "The drone industry budget expectations will be Service Linked Incentive. The industry is huge and its main aim is to receive a major nitro boost propulsion for Service Linked Incentives schemes as for every 1 indigenous drone manufacturer in the country, there are more than 450 drone service providers. With this India is nearing its goal of becoming the global hub for drone technology. The budget should include more subsidies for drone pilots for their training and skilling programmes with government partnerships. The industry budget should be used for drone applications in fields like defence, mining, logistics and transportation with providing jobs.", he said.

Low GST Rates

Harshwardhan Patwardhan, Co-Founder of Chappers, a manufacturing company, expects the government to lower GST rates which would mean lower upfront costs for raw materials and lower MRP's for customers. "Lower GST would help the overall industry as it would mean lower upfront costs while buying raw materials and also lower MRP’s for customers to buy which would mean higher demand for our products.", he said.

EV industry Anticipates Extension of FAME 2 

Pritesh Mahajan, Co-Founder and CEO of Revamp Moto says, “EV industry is growing at a rapid pace and hence we are all anticipating many announcements in the upcoming Union Budget for 2023.”

"One of the first and most important aspects that we are looking forward to and highly suggest is the extension of FAME 2 to continue through 2024. Along with that, the government should introduce a PLI scheme for SMEs and startups, as currently, it only favours corporates investing above 500 Crores. Additionally, we strongly recommend a reduction in custom duty for lithium-ion cells along with R&D incentives for advanced battery technologies and additional subsidies on it," he highlights. 

Emphasis On The Energy Sector

Dinesh Patidar, Chairman and Managing Director of Shakti Pumps (India) Ltd. shares, "We anticipate the Union Budget to place a major emphasis on the energy sector, considering the stated targets in green energy and its significance for economic growth, the government is likely to broaden the PLI incentives to integrate supply chains, fund and mobilize resources, and counteract the possibility of global risks and slowdown in development. To meet the goal of using non-fossil fuel power, solar will continue to play a significant role. Tax holidays should be provided to increase the ease of doing business for this technologically intensive industry.”

“The government could also consider allowing the availability of credit or reducing the GST rates for the supply of raw materials used in the manufacturing of solar products,” he suggested. 

“We believe that the government will offer concessional import duties on solar modules, which could defeat Atmanirbhar Bharat's purpose of import substitution. The PM-KUSUM scheme is a significant initiative for solarization that focuses on farmers who hold the majority of the market share for solar pumps in India,” added Patidar.

Ease Of Business For Local Players

Arjun Sinha Roy, Co-Founder, iRasus Technologies says that there is an urgent need of the hour to drive reliability, interoperability, and economies of scale across all parts of the EV ecosystem. Some sectors that need support and push from the Government are the Batteries (both hardware and software), OEM, and Charging Infrastructure.

“The Budget should focus on ease of business and encourage more local players to enter the market. Areas like component localization, access to components, etc, if addressed, then the Indian companies, big or small, can build competitive products at competitive prices. In 2000 India became a software hub. Maybe in the 2020s, India can become the EV hub of the world.”

Focus on Strengthening Public Health Administration

Krishna Reddy Nallamalla, Regional Director, South Asia, ACCESS Health International hopes that the budget will address various ongoing programs as part of National Health Policy. The issue is not more budget allocation, but how the allocated budget is being efficiently spent..

“Public health systems in India must be able to address the lack of management capacity to plan and implement budgets. At the outset, ACCESS Health international stressed on priority setting in budget allocation. Dr. Krishna Reddy Nallamalla recommends top priority should be given to health promotion through health literacy and multi-sector coordination to address non-medical social and environmental determinants of health,” Reddy added. 

Tax Relief for Salaried class

Manoj Sharma, Co-Founder, policybazaar feels that the salaried class is generally tax compliant and pay their taxes with honesty. They should be rewarded and get special benefits for the tax amount paid by them. 

“The Government can allow some deduction applicable only for salaried class, or they can be offered some incentive based on the tax paid by them. Also, allowance of chapter VIA deduction in the new tax regime and extension of time limit for claiming deduction under chapter VI-A (till date of filing ITR) could be considered for salaried class,” he suggested.

Increase in 80C limit

“It would be interesting to see an increase in limits for 80C since no revision has been made for many years now. Also, it will be beneficial if 80C limits can be linked to income slabs,” suggested Sharma.