Budget 2024: Ahead of the interim budget 2024, Dr. Archana Gupta, Founder of Purna Gummies emphasised that he wishes for the upcoming 2024 budget to recognize the importance of startups, positioning them at the center of innovation.
“We believe that growth-stage startups rarely benefit from taxation benefits since they are usually loss-making. One of our suggestions would be to delay indirect tax or GST payments for startups identified as innovative. This would improve cash flows for most startups and the additional 12-18% cash flows can make all the difference between survival and sudden death,” Dr. Gupta said in a statement.
He expressed that the government’s initiatives for seed funding of startups can be executed better.
“Since most of the seed funds are lying with the government as un-disbursed, ease of sanction and relaxed considerations should be implemented. The government should also consider issuing convertible debt, rather than secured or government-guaranteed debt. We also urge the government to consider implementing bankruptcy protection for startups in India, similar to the Chapter 11 filing in the US. This would enhance most startups’ capacity to take on debt,” Dr. Gupta said.
Most founders and active investors would be more comfortable with this rather than personal guarantees which implicate their entire personal net worth. An implementation of this nature would truly make founders have ’limited liability’, as is the spirit of the Private Limited enterprise in India.
In addition to the above, we request the government to consider relaxing the labor law and compliance guidelines for startups, as compliance costs and implementation are very difficult to execute at the early stages of a company, he said.
Additionally, we anticipate plans to improve the ease of doing business in the nutraceutical industry by simplifying regulatory processes, minimizing paperwork challenges, and improving operational efficiency to attract new investors, he said. The 2024 budget is projected to transcend its financial basis, growing into a strategic roadmap for the entire nutraceutical industry, he added.
