Post Budget 2017 Reactions of Industry' Leaders

Yesterday, we were waiting for the budget hoping for great steps to make India stronger. And today we have got answers. Our leaders expected many different things and here is there reactions about the budget 2017.

Mr. Rahul Gochhwal, co-founder, Trupay
“Though it remains to be seen if the proposed setting up of Payments Regulation Board under RBI and amendments in the Payments and Settlement Act will bring about fundamental changes to accommodate the fast changing digital payments ecosystem in the country. The budget will help Transforming India into a less cash economy to tackle the issue of corruption and clean up the system is one of the integral strategies of the government. Digital payment infrastructure would be strengthened, along with the grievance handling system. Up gradation of digital infrastructure will encourage non-cash payments “

Mr. Sumit Sabharwal, CEO (Managed Services) & Managing Director (SAARC), Excelity Global
“We are delighted and welcome the Union Budget 2017 where the proposals have huge benefit for the growing India private sector workforce. It provides impetus and greater momentum towards a digital economy to make India more competitive on a global platform. Budget announcements will further encourage Excelity’s endeavor to add value to our client’s employees with superior, innovative, simplified and customized value-based technology and mobility offerings.”

Mr. Pranay Bhatia, Partner – Direct Tax, BDO India on start-ups
In line with the expectations any change in substantial shareholding shall not impact carry forward of losses provided promoter retain their stake. Incentive boost from 3 out of 5 years to 3 out of 7 years is also a welcome move. Increase in MAT credit entitlement to 15 years will also incentivize credit availability to start-ups.
Mr. Anuraag Saboo, co-founder & CEO, Gumption Labs
"Government clearly very enthused by response to this year CPSE ETFs and they now propose to launch diversified public sector ETFs in coming year, which could drive ETFs as the new competing investing option for people instead of mutual funds as ETFs cost of management is much lower to Mutual Funds."

Mr. Parth Pande, co-founder & CEO, Finance Buddha.

"The MSME Sector is the bed rock of all large economies and is the biggest employment generator in the country, reducing the Income Tax for them is a great step as it should help in their growth and will ultimately lead to more investments from the sector and more employment creation thereof."

"Giving the Affordable Housing Sector Infrastructure status, will propel growth in the segment and lead to higher consumption. This will also lead to growth in the Affordable Home Loans Business where a lot of players have taken positions and new lenders have emerged. Exciting times ahead for Affordable Housing and Affordable Home Loans players"

Mr. Pradipto Chakrabarty, Regional Director, CompTIA on Cyber Security
"We already have a Computer Emergency Response Team (Cert-in) which reports to the ministry of electronics and IT. We will have to see how different this team will be from CERT-IN. In my opinion one of the key roles of an ideal Computer Emergency Response Team should be complete focus on threat / vulnerability analytics to prevent security lapses through a team of highly trained professionals on information security defense tactics. Also, it should be a nodal agency for a common repository of breach events so that the entire ecosystem can learn from the best practices. The objective of this team (either new or the existing organization) will be all about analytics and defense. "

Mr. Amit Nath, ‎Head of Asia Pacific - Corporate Business at F-Secure
"The Union Budget 2017 is at par with our expectations. We welcome the move by the Financial Minister meant to strengthen the digital infrastructure in rural India, by allocating INR 10,000 Cr for Bharat Net Project. The same is slated to empower over 150,000 gram panchayats with high speed internet and Wi-Fi hotspots. While this sets the right impetus for rural India to come online, the government has further taken the steps necessary to ensure optimum level of cybersecurity. We especially appreciate the Computer Emergency Response Team to be setup post the budget announcement and dedicatedly monitor cyber hacks, ensuring the security and integrity of online data. The synergy created by these announcements, along with the efforts of cyber security solutions is going to further inspire new users to come online, aiding India’s transition to a digital economy."

Mr. Sivarama Krishnan, Leader- Cybersecurity, PwC India

“The finance minister announced the proposal for establishing a CERT specifically for the financial services sector, which is aligned to the need of the hour and to steps taken by cyber security leaders. Linking regulatory authorities (SEBI and RBI) will help in the development of more comprehensive guidelines and regulations for financial services companies, significantly strengthen threat information sharing (and consequently detection) and compel them to increase their security spending as the CERT takes shape.

The Government in its current budget announcement has only committed to deliver on its promise of 'Digital India.' Certain announcements, such as plans to roll-out 20 lac Aadhaar-based swipe machines, promoting BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money), which already has over 1.25 crore users, and digital systems for payments of Government and defense employees highlight the need for strengthening cyber security in the Government. Measures across multiple areas, such as web application security, device security and secure protocols need to implemented to ensure protection of financial transcations and the Government should develop and release standards for the same. The thrust on Digital India and digital payments both require a focus on cyber security. The financial CERT and the attention towards cyber security in financial budget is in right direction. The implementation of the initiative will help secure Digital India.”

Mr. Neel Ratan, Leader- Government and Public Sector, PwC India
"The Government seems committed to the cause of bridging the digital divide and taking digital to the masses. Allocation of 10,000 crore for Bharat Net and elimination of service charges for railway tickets booked via IRCTC will give a major boost to the mission of making India a digital economy. Additional funds for Bharat Net will further spread the tentacles of optical fiber, which is the backbone of Digital India programme. Aadhaar based smart cards for monitoring the health of senior citizens is a great way to leverage the citizen identity database while marrying technology with health. The move will reduce the burden on our health machinery to some extent and open up avenues to explore more applications of digital citizen identity database."

Mr. Sunil Jose, Managing Director, Teradata India.
“Budget 2017 highlights the government’s focus on enforcing greater transparency and accountability with a clear attempt being made to widen the tax base. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley made several references to using data mining to improve the efficiency of the various tax departments specifically with regards to transforming India from a cash driven to a digital economy using new measures such as Aadhaar Pay. This is a step in the right direction which will have a relevant impact in widening the tax base and make India fiscally stronger and have a positive impact on national growth and development.”

Mr. Anshuman Magazine, Chairman – India and South East Asia CBRE
“Overall, the Union Budget 2017 augurs well for real estate, affordable housing and the infrastructure segment.

The affordable housing sector is finally set to get infrastructure status. This was a long-awaited announcement. While we are yet to read the fine-print, this is indeed an important step to promote access to priority lending thereby spurring supply of low cost housing units across various cities in India. Relaxation in area measurement as well as completion timelines to seek tax exemption are welcome steps. Further, the government has also increased allocation under the PMAY scheme. This will encourage home buyers and further boost participation from the Private players.

The airport authority of land act amendment is yet another positive move which will allow development of land around the airports. This will further improve infrastructure and more importantly increase funding for the development of the airports. This is over and above the record allocation made to the overall infrastructure sector.

In order to encourage greater fund flows into the economy, the FM has announced abolition of the FIPB. While a clear policy outline is yet to be revealed, this is another positive step to liberalize FDI policy framework and ease regulatory hurdles in attracting investments.

The government has also been accommodative of the concerns of the real estate sector. The relaxation on long term capital gains, joint development agreements, tax rebates for builders will help reduce their tax liability.

While greater rebates were expected in individual tax rates, nonetheless the rebate for individuals earning upto 5 lacs will help increase their disposable incomes. This might help spur consumption and also have a positive impact on demand for housing. ”

Mr. Anuraag Saboo, co-founder & CEO, Gumption Labs
"Aadhaar based merchant payment mechanism, AadharPay will transform digital payments to next level and this is a great boost to all digital enterprises and startups and with cashback benefits announced on Bhim app which has been downloaded by over 125 lakhs, could very well mark the beginning of the end of private payment wallets."

Mr. Srikumar Misra Founder, MD and CEO of Milk Mantra
"The dairy processing infra fund of 8000crs is a positive step for the sector, however, the government needs to take a wholistic view and develop a policy framework to support both cooperatives and private dairy processing companies. With the "Make in India" narrative, the Govt needs to focus on private dairy companies as well, as private sector is contributing around 45% of the total organized milk procurement and has grown it's share from 6.5% to 12% compared to 9% for milk cooperatives in the last 10 years. The fund should also be structured to provide support for entrepreneurial dairy companies in the form of cost efficient patient debt for setting up additional processing capacity and capitalizing dairy supply chain infrastructure."

Mr. Sunil Gupta, Founder & Director, ExportersIndia.com
"With “Transform, energise, and clean India, that is Tech India” this budget has upped allocation for rural, agriculture and allied sectors by 24% has opened scope for increasing investments and yielding multiple benefits. The rapid growth in manufacturing sector is a good sign for overall economy. The new FDI policy is a welcome move. MSMEs and start ups have all the reasons to cheer with a dip in income tax to 25% for companies with an annual turnover of Rs.50 crore. Their grin grows wider with the FM proposing dip in bank lending rates. Incentives such as cash backs, referral schemes on BHIM app is all set to push the use of digital transactions which is yet another reason for MSMEs to move to online business models. The lowering of Income tax would also increase the spending capacity which will benefit the SMEs."

Mr. Akshay Dhoot, Head, Technology and Innovation, Videocon
“We congratulate the Central Government for presenting a growth conducive budget 2017. The overall announcements seems like a cohesive push for holistic economic growth. We welcome initiatives that will give further boost to Make in India in order to make our country a hub of electronic and tech manufacturing. This has been taken care of with announcements like incentivising local electronic manufacturing up to Rs.745 crore by enhancing special policies like Modified Special Incentive Package Scheme (MSIPS) and Electronic Development Fund (EDF). This move would definitely give more sops to domestic mobile handset makers. India is one of the fastest growing mobile markets in the world and it would further get boost from newly formed trade infra export scheme”

Mr Rajasundaram Sudarshan, COO & C0-founder, CreditMantri
This is a clearly a growth centric budget. It has brought significant benefits to middle income group and SME sector through lower taxes, deferred loss absorption benefits and capital gain period reduction. It has released more money with these segments which will give better purchasing power. Low cost housing will certainly help the much needed boost. These two sectors are likely to see more lending and credit activity happening.

Mr. Manavjeet Singh, Founder & CEO Rubique on FinTech and Startups

"We appreciate the announcements made under the Union Budget 2017. We feel the budget is well rounded, covering important cores of the Indian economy, including SMEs, Rural India, Digitalization and the common, middle class citizens of India.

The budget does include certain good news for the startups. The increased period for profit linked deduction for three years out of 7 years as against five years is welcome, as start-ups are not expected to make profits for the first few years. The need was for a 10-year period, but extension to 7 years is nevertheless welcome. The exemption from MAT has however, not been allowed, and an enhanced carry over period will not really help start ups from a cash flow perspective.

Furthermore, the housing and personal finance sector has received a major boost from the announcements by the Financial Minister. The move to shift housing into infrastructure is going to enable debt and equity financing, further bringing down the costs and inspiring users to opt for the same. Besides, the income tax reductions for common people is further going to increase the buying potential or take loans for various purposes.

National housing bank will refinance loans worth Rs 20,000 cr. This is expected to increase Balance transfers especially in affordable housing segment due to strong focus on PMAY. This will also give in impetus to housing sector overall.

Double lending target of banks to Rs 2.44 lakh crore. This is primarily to bridge the existing lending gap & we see more capital available for customers specially for MSMEs."

Mr. Vivek Khandelwal, Vice President, Delta ID
“We welcome the duty exemptions on iris enabled PoS devices, and are truly excited about the strong emphasis the government has placed on Aadhaar enabled payment initiatives. With all the foundations with respect to standards, certifications, and availability of devices, already in place, this impetus will further accelerate the adoption and integration of Aadhaar in programs and processes that touch the everyday lives of the people of India"
Mr. Atul Rai, CEO and Co-founder, Staqu

"The Union Budget 2017 doesn't provide any direct benefits to startups this year. Besides, the tax exemptions from capital gain are rather difficult to meet, at least in the early stage of 3-5 years for a startup. However, the newly announced exemptions for income tax of common people and well-rounded push towards digital payments will ultimately increase the buying capacity, along with mobile phone utility. These institutional changes, I believe, will push towards the growth of new age digital startups, albeit indirectly."
Mr. Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder & CEO - Paytm
"It is a digital economy budget. Government has pushed the digital theme in every area of the budget. Every person from a small shops to consumers are pushed towards the digital economy. Tax benefits, incentives to use digital payments and extending loans based on a digital footprint will create a larger merchant ecosystem for digital payments. Incentives for labour intensive sectors including housing, farming and dairy will help SMEs to create new jobs. Focus and attention to bank NPAs, as well as increasing bank capitalisation is great step towards strengthening the financial system of the country. Finally, the income tax rate changes will encourage more people to report their incomes and create a larger tax net for the country. Overall, it is a great budget that will encourage people to move to the formal economy and derive benefits."

Mr. Sameer Grover, Founder and CEO Crownit
Overall the budget is pro-entrepreneurs which will help create jobs in India, hire skilled talent at low cost and also improve industry output.
Two specific highlights of the budget which particularly enthuse me are :
. Firstly the easing of tax for India based funds and FDI/FIPB changes- this will give a big boost to early stage startups.
. Secondly, the tax exemption for startups, now that's a big support to the Indian startups

Anil Valluri, President - NetApp India & SAARC
“The Budget 2017-18 theme is to Transform, Energise and Clean India and every citizen to my mind will agree with this theme. The focus on both physical and digital infrastructure build out continues and there are clear milestones stated in the budget for instance that 150,000 Gram Panchayats will have Broadband connectivity by end of 2017-18 and these will be used to provide tele medicine & education is laudable. This is not a populist budget, but a budget which caters sensibly to the poor, youth, farmers, villages and infrastructure to propel India further every year. Demonetisation was a bold move and so is the move to bring in transparency in electoral funding as announced in this budget.” Said Anil Valluri, President, NetApp India & SAARC.

Sriram S, Co-Founder and Director at iValue InfoSolutions
“We will call it a balanced budget, which will drive growth with prudence and addressing needs of the poor. The major thrust on Capex growth of 25% should drive demand. The focus on infrastructure and rural areas are welcoming.

As the digitization was one of the core area for this post demonetization budget the promotion of Bhim and plan for Aadhar based payment without mobile is an appreciable initiative. Also, limiting the cash transactions to 3L is a good step which could have been pegged at 1L. The 25% corporate tax cap for companies up to 50Cr revenue is a great step which will benefit more than 90% Indian firms. 50% personal tax reduction for 2L to 5L slab should help the emerging class.

We did not hear much on cyber security with a greater push on the digital transaction, but for the creation of CERT. We still think a lot more focus is required on this front.”
Shibu Paul, Regional Director (IN , GCC & SEA ) at Array Networks
“I am overall happy with the budget, the increased focus on cashless economy and move towards digitization is very much appreciable. I will call it a forward looking budget with the balanced Tax soaps, IT rebates, focus on rural areas and SME development. Also, the reduction in tax for companies with less than ₹50cr turnover, which will now be placed at 25% is a big win for MSME sector and around 96% of the companies will be benefitted by this major announcement.”

Ravi Raj, Brand Head, Director Sales & Support at NetRack
“This is overall a positive budget, which constitutes the entire element required for a progressive economy. This budget is an extension of the initiatives like digital India and make in India. The focus on infrastructure is a big push for industries, also the supporting schemes to push digitization like installing of POS machines, BHIM app, Aadhar payments as well as initiatives on digital transactions will help grow Indian economy. Apart from this, the tax reduction for companies with less than ₹50cr turnovers is the biggest take away for SME sector from this budget. We are hopeful for early implementation of GST, which will facilitate smooth movement of goods across India.”

Mr. Raghav Himatsingka, CEO & Founder, Truckola (Transportation, Logistics and Startup)
"Union Budget 2017 proved to be a signature mark for transportation sector with the announcement to pace the construction of roads. It’s a healthy move to support logistics industry which leads to swiftness and efficiency across sectors. By allocating Rs 2.41 lakh cr towards transport sector with an additional resolution to step up the budget for highway spends to Rs 64,000 crore in FY18, transportation industry is definitely set to witness some positive returns. Accounting to nearly 14% of India’s GDP, the logistics industry plays a vital role in the nation’s overall growth. With major emphasis on rural development this year, we feel this is an overall positive budget which will stimulate growth as well as drive social welfare and income equality."
Mr. Jatin Goel, Creator, The Vault (Startup, Investors)
The push towards a truly digital economy resonates in the budget 2017 with a host of measures taken to curb the use of cash. In my opinion, the overall budget will help drive investments, promote angel investments and extend support to small and medium sized enterprises.

However, the budgets seems to have missed addressing one of the major concerns, that of unemployment. While I appreciate income tax reductions, the budget also needs to address the concerns of unemployed citizens of India. I'm further hopeful for acute measures from government, meant to solve the same.

Mr. Aurvind Lama Co-founder CEO of Mr. Lama, Travelyaari
"A lot was expected from this year Union Budget, not all but we are happy to see few of them being fulfilled .The union budget presented bought in progressive outlook with due importance given to infrastructure development and tech development. The investment proposed in building National Highways along with developing road network is a welcome step especially for player like us in bus industry. This infrastructural development will greatly benefit the travel and tourism. Focus on improving internet and broadband connection in rural areas will go a long way to digitize cashless economy and connecting them to the main stream. The governments focus on inclusion and encouragement of the MSME sector along with Startups is also visible. Profit linked deductions to 3 years out 7 will be helpful for emerging startup players."
Ms. Sakshi Vij (Founder & CEO, Mylescars.com)
"The Union Budget presented is a welcome change. The governments focus on inclusion and encouragement of the MSME sector along with Startups is visible. The increase in the Profit linked deductions period to 3 out of 7 years is a welcome change for young startups like us. The exemptions proposed for the Indian entities with Foreign placed portfolio investments is also a step in the right direction."
Mr. Rajiv Vij (CEO & MD, Carzonrent.com)
"The Union Budget presented brings out the progressive outlook of the government for Businesses as well as individuals. The investments proposed in the area of skill developments are a welcome step. The investments in building National Highways is a welcome step for the car rental industry. The impact of the demonetization drive is visible with progressive steps taken for an inclusive and cashless economic future of India."
Mr. Suman Nandy, Founder and Director, epaathsala

"Above measures in the budget especially on accreditation and granting autonomous status along with reforms in UGC will help transform India Higher education to be more at par with the global institutions. Our institutions and degrees will be competitive to global leaders enabling Indian education to attract domestic students and also international student community. These measures will help us to evolve as the projected global education hub in coming decades. Overall , this is a budget which enables transformation of Indian Higher education."
Mr. Suvro Banerjee, Managing Director (Asia Pacific), Fuzzy Logix

We expect the budget to provide further momentum to the digitization of the Indian financial system, thus strengthening demand for IT products and services, specially in the Big Data Analytics space. We also expect to see increased corporate spend on IT, encouraged by lower cost of borrowing and reduction in income tax for small/medium corporates. All these factors should help us grow our business in India.