India Budget 2023 Expectations Updates (Jan 30): Ahead of FM Nirmala Sitharaman’s 5th Budget Speech on February 1, it is expected that the Government will provide Income Tax relief to the common man, including salaried employees and senior citizens while creating new job opportunities and balancing capital expenditure and fiscal deficit. The Government is also expected to provide more funds to the agriculture sector and farmers. Track this space for Updates on Budget 2023 Expectations on January 30.
Also Read: Budget 2023 Income Tax Changes Live Updates
'Fintech Companies are subject to corporate income tax rates. The GST is charged at a rate of 18 per cent on services rendered by fintech businesses that are mentioned in Section 65(12) of the Finance Act, 1994. We expect the government to reduce start-up taxes across the board with no GST until Rs 10 crore turnover annually. We believe that this could help SMEs build a stronger economy and aid in more jobs,' says Hemant Sood , Founder at Findoc
'The Indian government's goal of reducing plastic waste can be greatly supported by incentivizing the usage of sustainable products such as paper and paper bags. Currently, GST on paper products is 18%, which is the same as that of plastic products. This is a significant increase from the VAT era when the indirect tax on paper products was only 5%. This puts paper products at a disadvantage in terms of cost when compared to plastic products, making it less appealing for consumers to choose paper products over plastic. We hope to see this mistake rectified in this budget,' says Sushant Gaur , Founder and CEO of Adeera Packaging.
A Reuters report ahead of the Economic Survey says that the pre-budget survey sees India's GDP growth at 6-6.8% for 2023-24. This probable growth rate is the slowest in last three years. An economic survey by Chief Economic Adviser V. Anantha Nageswaran will be tabled in the parliament on Tuesday by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, a day before she presents the budget for the next fiscal year.
“In the last few years, we have seen a significant increase in the adoption of digital payments. We expect further digital infrastructure push from the government to make India a cash-free economy. The budget should provide incentives for MSMEs for the adoption of digital payments in tier 3 towns and beyond. The government should give further push for the adoption of prepaid instruments for reaching out to the financially underserved and the underbanked. We also expect the government to actively promote Digital banks and build a digital banking regime, helping fintech players offer their tech platforms to build optimal credit products and offer best-in-class customer experience. With the rise in digital payments, payment fraud has also expanded at a rapid pace. The budget should include regulations that would curb the menace of digital frauds, including mandatory adoption of Fraud Management solutions. Furthermore, banks should be incentivized to share anonymized fraud markings data that would help develop robust, cross-banking data models to prevent payment fraud. These initiatives would further drive digital adoption and truly deliver the benefits of a digital economy,” says Suresh Rajagopalan, CEO, Wibmo – A PayU Company
“The approaching Budget 2023 marks the arrival of the last full-year budget from the union government, which is expected to usher in favourable legislative policies to help grow the sixth-largest chemical-producing country in the world. This year, we expect positive momentum towards formulation of the PLI scheme for the chemical sector to encourage domestic manufacturing. With exports of chemical and petroleum products to more than 175 countries standing at a staggering $8.24 billion, we expect the government to implement export benefits for specialty chemicals to aid the overall economy. Manufacturing business tax exemptions provided by DSIR, under section 35 (2AB) of the IT Act 1961, stands at 100%, compared to the 150% prior to March, 2020. A revision in this tax structure could empower firms to increase R&D expenditure, helping them produce new products and technologies. Additionally, the government can create a Models Specialty Chemical Manufacturing Region in Vidarbha, which could give rise to 3000 MSMEs in the region, with a petrochemical complex acting as a catalyst for industrial growth. Further, the chemical sector is highly capital intensive with long pay back periods. Capital expansion of the chemical sector could be enabled if the government provides subsidies of 10%-20% for investment projects beyond Rs. 100 crore. In the past months, the shift of global supply from China has increased outsourcing opportunities and domestic demand. It has given India more expansion opportunities. By 2025, the Indian chemical industry is expected to reach $300 billion, and focused assistance in export benefits, tax advantages, and capital subsidies will further add thrust to the ongoing growth,” says Dr Deepak Birewar, Chairman & MD, Inventys Research Company.
'Travel and tourism have always been important contributors to the country’s GDP. During Covid, this sector was among the worst affected and is still far from pre-Covid levels. It is also a big generator of employment and in the current context of high unemployment, supporting this sector will pay rich dividends to the economy. It, therefore, behooves the government to give a special thrust to this sector. The upcoming Union Budget offers the government the perfect opportunity to do so by formulating provisions that aid the sector to recover from the losses it has borne during the last couple of years. As a travel-oriented business, we expect higher budgetary allocation to infrastructure to promote travel.'
'We are also looking forward to the government granting industry status to the travel and tourism sector, which will help in the regularization of policies and processes and better access to finance. Measures like rationalization of taxes, reduction in indirect taxes and related exemptions could also benefit the sector to a great extent by creating a favorable environment for people to spend their disposable income on travel. The introduction of soft loans with lucrative terms can also act as a stimulant for the sector, which is still on its journey to post-pandemic revival. We expect that the upcoming budget announcement will lead the sector towards a period of prosperity,' says Sunil Gupta, MD & CEO, Avis India
'There are several tenets of the industry which are expected to benefit from the upcoming budget session. The entire travel and tourism industry is still in the process of recuperating from the major blow that it faced when Covid-19 struck. As the pandemic becomes endemic, it is important for both the central and state governments to work in tandem to facilitate this sector and support it. For starters, the government could include travel and tourism in the concurrent list to provide it with industry status, which will help in making it more structured,' says Nishant Pitti, CEO and Co-founder, EaseMyTrip
'A greater focus on the industry’s revival is required, which can be done by implementing an e-visa fee waiver for tourist visas, and domestic income tax travel credit for Indian citizens and Indian companies. The Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) should also be extended to tourism and hospitality. In addition to this, we are also hoping that with the upcoming budget, the government will strive to increase the disposable income of the middle classes to aid the rise of discretionary spending. This can be done by taking concrete steps should be taken to improve the cash flows, enable access to easy credit, and reduce the income tax rates and GST tax rates,' he added.
According to Kalpesh Desai, Partner, Deal Advisory – Tax of KPMG India, the key expectation of the Venture capital and private quity community is the Centre bringing in some parity with respect to teh Capital Gain Regime. At present, there seems to be some amount of disparity how residents are taxed and how non-residents are taxed. Another area of concern is certain instruments that are sold. Desai says that the community feels that the Modi government should simplify the capital tax regime. There's a hope that no investor is saddled with additional tax liability and is protected for the past investment, Desai said.
We expect Union Budget to focus on health sector. GST shouldn't be levied on heart-related&other life-saving drugs. Medicines met for pregnant women should also be GST-free.Emphasis to also be laid on medical education:Dr SS Shahi, director, UP Gorakhpur Nursing Assoc – ANI
The Budget Session of Parliament will begin from tomorrow. The session will begin with the speech by President Droupadi Murmu to the joint sitting of both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. According to teh officials, the Budget Session will se the Modi government introducing as many as 36 Bills during the course of teh session. Out of these, 4 are related to the budgetary exercise.
'Digital India Program is a great initiative for companies like start-ups, SaaS-based and new-age companies. We are creating the SMB booster program in the cloud space which enables small businesses to get into the digital transformation very quickly without much hassle, which can take care of sales, service, and marketing automation and also connecting to finance operations like automatic e-invoice and automatic billing solutions can be done. We also do KYC solutions which can be so easy to adopt.- The budget will be focusing on measures that support growth and innovation in the software and SaaS industry.- Support for the development and adoption of new technologies such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence, machine learning and the Internet of Things.- Technology Clusters in tier 1 cities in India; while there are IT talents every corner in India they are forced to move to tier 1 cities. As a result, big cities are enduring infrastructure issues. Govt. must come-up with a special budget for booming IT infrastructure in tier 2, or Tier 3 cities as well to take-off the load from big cities.- Measures to address the skills gap in the IT industry and support for training and upskilling of workers.- Tax incentives for companies that invest in research and development.- This year's budget may also include measures to address concerns around data privacy and security, as well as efforts to increase the adoption of digital technologies in various sectors,' Priya Ranjan Panigrahy, CEO and Founder of CEPTES Software.
'The previous year presented numerous opportunities for entrepreneurs, which catapulted India further to become one of the largest and most successful hubs for entrepreneurship and new-age startups. For the fitness and nutrition sector, we have witnessed technological advancement with new-age tech like AI and ML ruling over the sector to make it more sustainable and customer-reliable. PM Modi's support towards the Fit India Movement has been huge, and in 2023 we can expect to see Indians continue to become better versions of themselves with fitness as a priority. We believe that this year's budget will further bolster startups through new policies and norms that will lend support to entrepreneurs,' says Jitendra Chouksey, Co-founder & CEO of Fittr.
'The government seriously intends to make decolonising education a reality for future Indian generations. This intent can be brought alive through a substantial increase in allocation for education in the upcoming budget. Such an allocation will be a strong signal by the government that our education system can be decolonised entirely. There are other reasons why the budget allocation for education will have to break new ground. Balancing the budget is a tough ask with competing demands to keep economy going and jobs increasing. This is less about balancing the budgets and more about creating the right balance between solving short term pains and investing for long term prosperity,' said Vineet Nayar, Founder Chairman of Sampark Foundation and Former Vice Chairman and CEO of HCL Technologies
Siddarth Pai, Founding Partner, CFO and ESG Officer of 3one4 Capital, shares four top asks of the Indian AIF Industry from the upcoming Budget:
1. Parity of tax treatment of the securities they invest in
a. India has differential tax treatment for various security classes, especially between listed and unlisted
b. This is distorting asset allocation decisions as structuring as opposed to substance is dictating capital flows
c. Having parity in the treatment of securities will increase the capital allocated to investments in new asset creation that generate jobs and boost the economy
2. Separate Legal Forms for AIFs and recognition of AIF operations in Indian Law
a. AIFs today are structured as trusts, LLPs or companies, leaving them exposed to judicial or legal changes to these acts that would have unintended consequences for AIFs
b. This is especially important as AIFs are investing entities and the aforementioned structures are primarily operating entities
c. A separate legal form for AIFs and giving legal credence to AIF operations will give the industry clarity and certainty, which will allow for greater capital flows
3. Making AIFs globally competitive to aid onshoring the offshore
a. AIFs operate on a tax pass-through basis for income and losses, but not for expenses. This distorts the returns from AIFs as the historic expenses become a dead loss in the hands of the investor, leading to a negative drag on returns.
b. Allowing for pass through of expenses will make AIFs more globally competitive.
c. The tax pass-through status has only been afforded for Cat I and II AIFs, not CAT III AIFs (hedge funds and listed market funds). This is pushing fund managers to set up in Singapore or Mauritius as opposed to GIFT IFSC or India
d. The gateway to Indian equities should be Mumbai, not Mauritius.
e. Having this parity will allow Indians to more actively manage the capital being invested in India
4. Increase Institutional Rupee Capital participation in AIF
a. For the AIF industry to grow, it is important to increase the participation of Institutional Rupee Capital in such vehicles
b. AIFs being professionally managed, are best placed to augment the returns of such financial institutions and their CIOs must be empowered to add AIFs into their asset mix
c. Insurance companies face several hurdles to invest into AIFs such as their inability to invest in funds with foreign investments due to Section 27E of the Insurance Act, 1938. Their inability to invest in funds with differential units, etc hampers asset allocations
d. Banks have an impediment in terms of the risk weightage attached to investment in such funds
e. EPFO and NPS have restrictions that require credit ratings of AIFs, which is not inherently possible due to the nature of such funds.
f. Charitable institutions are prevented from investing into Indian AIFs as it’s not an approved investment avenue as per Rule 17C of the Income Tax Rules, 1962
g. Allowing for a graded exposure to AIFs will allow for these financial institutions to get the same exposure that their global counterparts can take, allowing for a healthier diversification of investments and uncorrelated returns.”
Madan Sabnavis, Chief Economist at Bank of Baroda says, “Budget 2023 will be an exercise of managing several objectives: movement to fiscal prudence, stimulating growth without accompanying inflation, garnering more resources through non-tax measures and providing sops where necessary. As all these objectives would run in different directions, the FM will exercise considerable dexterity to moving ahead decisively on all counts. We do expect the deficit to be managed without any undue pressure on market borrowings; and this is critical from the point of view of the financial markets which are concerned on the direction of bond yields at a time when liquidity is near neutral in the system. A combination of tax sops for the middle class and more directed assistance to the poor can be expected keeping in mind the Elections in 2024, while the fiscal space will determine how much can be provided for capex. A lower growth rate in nominal GDP for FY24 will come in the way of making assumptions on tax collections for the year.”
Sneh Jain, Co-founder and Managing Director of The Baker’s Dozen says, “Budget 2022 was predominantly inclined towards the masses and promoted a lot of serious aspects starting from prioritising mental health to encouraging the start-up ecosystem. One of the initiatives that we sincerely applaud is the National Education Policy, introduction to new courses and online learning. This year, we hope the new policies drive the Government’s agenda on Ease of Doing Business across the country and encouraging new startup brands. We, therefore, expect some tax relaxations for start-up brands by simplifying the tax laws. We also expect lower income tax for individuals so that they can have more cash in hand.”
Deepak Anand, Co-founder and CEO of Housr says the co-living market in India is growing by leaps and bounds and as per a report published by Makreo Research and Consulting, it is expected to cross USD 1.0 billion Mark by 2025.
“Considering the promising future of co-living, the incentives for the segment will further fuel its contribution to the economy. In the new budget, we would request the government for easier credit to encourage the growth of the co-living sector along with reducing corporate tax to spur economic growth,” says Anand.
Vivek Nath, Head of India, WTW (Willis Towers Watson consulting firm) says the risk and insurance sector in India is now moving from a phase of evolution, since privatization, to a phase of revolution as it aims for ‘Insurance for all’ by 2047’. The industry expects the budget to outline policy measures that move the country in that direction while increasing insurance penetration and safeguarding consumer interest.
“Some of these measures include the relaxation of the minimum entry capital requirement in order to bring in FDI, cutting edge technology and best practices in a way that safeguards policyholder interest. Considering the medical inflation, the budget should consider reduction of the GST applicable on retail insurance to improve insurance coverage. While there is significant focus on solar and renewable energy, industry in general, is prioritising actions towards a low carbon economy and the budget should outline policy measures that will improve assessment, measurement, mitigation and transfer of climate or climate related risks including via insurance,” says Nath.
Talking about his Budget 2023 expectations, Amit Agarwal, Managing Director, Singapore & India of Stanton Chase says it is likely that the government will continue to focus on creating a favourable business environment and promoting economic growth, which may include measures to support the hiring of executives and other skilled professionals.
“The Indian government has been focusing on increasing employment opportunities in the country and providing support to businesses and industries. The budget 2023 may also have schemes or policies that focus on skill development and vocational training to increase the availability of a skilled workforce. This would be beneficial for executive hiring as companies would have a larger pool of skilled and trained professionals to choose from,” says Agarwal.
“Additionally, the government may also announce tax incentives for companies that increase their hiring of executives and other skilled professionals. This could include tax breaks for training and development programs, as well as deductions for executive compensation,” he adds.
Economic Survey of India 2023 will be tabled in Parliament tomorrow, a day before the Budget. Economic Survey reveals economic and financial trends in the country over the past year. Read full details here
Madhusudan Ekambaram, Co-Founder and CEO of KreditBee says policy measures towards developing startup-clusters, which promote easy access to capital, incubator programs, federally funded R&D activities, among others will assist startups. The growth of the startup sector also depends upon clearer regulations and streamlining the process of obtaining licenses. There are certain benefits which are extended to the Inter-Ministerial Board (IMB) certified startups and not the DPIIT-recognised start-ups. The IMB certifications are difficult to get as 99% of Indian start-ups are not recognised by IMB.
“We hope that the government broadens the criteria for tax relief to startup employees to reduce the burden on taxation of ESOP sales. Measures towards incentivising ESOPs with simpler and appropriate tax structures would help provide startups with significant wealth creation opportunities while also helping them attract and retain talent. Also, providing the requisite parity for capital gains tax treatment between unlisted and listed shares as investors in unlisted companies bear higher risk, will remove the complications with respect to classes of assets, tax rates and period of holding and indexation benefits. It will render the investments attractive for investors.”
Vasudevan P N, CEO, Equitas Small Finance Bank believes that the Government’s focus in Budget 2023 will be on higher capex and rural spending, in order to nurture early signs of capex cycle recovery and lighten rural slowdown. “Expectations are running high in terms of delivering another growth oriented budget, especially given it will be the last full year budget before the 2024 union election. Any disappointment in the form of higher fiscal consolidation would be construed negatively, especially at the time of the ongoing global macro headwinds,” he says.
According to Vasudevan P N, following points are likely to be the key focus areas in Budget 2023:
Other focus areas:
A survey by LocalCircles reveals that more than half of households across 309 districts expect a decline in their income by up to 25 per cent and dip in savings. They are, therefore, looking for relief in the coming budget. Read full story
Sharing her Budget 2023 expectations for D2C brands, Neha Kant, Founder and CRO of Clovia says, “We expect the Union Budget to include incentives to enable empowerment of women entrepreneurs in tier 2,3,4 geographies (including the ones who may be running small enterprises from their homes) to become self-reliant and further scale their enterprise. This is in line with Clovia's Partnership Program wherein we are already assisting buddy entrepreneurs to build their technical expertise, develop products and create sustainable revenue streams for themselves. Policies and relief measures to assist domestic manufacturers like us in developing a strong homegrown brand would also help boost the retail landscape.”
The insurance sector is expecting increased Section 80C, Section 80D limits, tax-free pension plans and more from Union Budget 2023. Parimal Heda, Chief investment officer at Digit Insurance shares the top expectations of the Insurance Sector from Budget 2023. Read Full Story
CA Ruchika Bhagat says last year’s budget to some extent proved to be fulfilling the expectation of the common person by the Government committed heavily to food security and public welfare during the time the pandemic. There is high hope that something big with regard to tax benefits will be coming in the upcoming union budget. Read More
Aryaman Vir, Founder and CEO of MYRE Capital says that the Union Budget is expected to provide a boost to sustain the momentum in real estate sector in 2023. Sharing his expectations from the Budget, he says that the industry and stakeholders at large will be looking at the following steps taken by the Government to facilitate overall growth:
Increasing HRA % for metro cities: The government should consider increasing the percentage of House Rent Allowance (HRA) that employees can claim as tax deductions for those living in metro cities. This will help to offset the higher cost of living in these areas and make it more affordable for people to rent a home.
Increasing max loss cap for income under house property: The government should consider increasing the maximum loss that can be claimed as a deduction for income under house property. This will provide more financial relief for individuals who own multiple properties and are facing losses due to factors such as vacancy or rental income being less than the mortgage interest payments.
Creating a separate section for housing loan principal repayment deduction: The government should consider creating a separate section for housing loan principal repayment deduction in the Income Tax Act. This will help to make it easier for taxpayers to claim this deduction and will also provide an additional incentive for people to invest in property.
Agriculture industry experts say that the Government should increase the cash assistance given to farmers under the PM-Kisan scheme. Currently, farmers are getting Rs 6000 per year as cash assistance under the PM-Kisan scheme for the purchase of crop inputs. Dhanuka Group Chairman R G Agarwal told PTI that the PM-KISAN amount should be increased so that farmers can buy an adequate quantity of crop inputs like seeds, fertilisers and pesticides. Read More
Budget 2023 is going to be the second Budget of FM Nirmala Sitharaman when the equity market is in the red ahead of the Big Day. In the last two weeks, the market has slid 2.4%. In the last 10 budgets, there have been only two occasions when the market faced greater volatility. Read more about how the market has behaved pre-Budget in the last 10 years HERE
An all-party meeting will be held today in New Delhi ahead of the Budget 2023 Session starting tomorrow. The meeting has been convened by Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prahlad Joshi in Parliament Annexe Building. At the all-party meeting, the Government is expected to seek cooperation from the Opposition for the smooth functioning of the Parliament during the Budget session.
