The countdown has begun for Nirmala Sitharaman’s fourth Budget on February 1 this year. All eyes are focused on union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s annual budget 2022-23? Will she be able to put India on the path for economic revival, by increasing production, curbing inflation, and maintaining an eight per cent plus growth rate?
Here’s what some of the industry CEOs expect from Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s budget:
Pallavi Agarwal, Founder & CEO, goSTOPS
The hospitality sector contributes 9% of India’s GDP and employs more than 4.5 crore people. Among the worst-hit industries, it plays an important role in the revival of the post-pandemic economy and hence needs special attention in the upcoming budget of 2022.
Since March 2020, India’s travel and hospitality sector has emerged as a domestic-demand-driven economy and proper government funding will ensure further sustainable pickup in domestic travel demand. My top expectations from Budget 2022 for the hospitality sector are –
- increased investment towards boosting the tourism infrastructure, and
- provision of better accessibility and connectivity to remote and mini tourist locations for a large cross-section of the population.
Attention must also be given to providing tax breaks and interest-free subsidy options, thereby increasing investment in the sector. We must also focus on setting up more entrepreneurial cells and up-skilling centres to build a skilled workforce that enhances customer experience, and supports the overall ecosystem, at large. While the surge in Covid-19 cases has resulted in highly volatile consumer confidence towards travel – proactive and timely amendments will boost domestic operations, and help the industry bounce back sooner.
Venkat Rajaraman, Founder and CEO of Cygni
The government is expected to enhance policy and market collaboration across mobility, energy, and real estate sectors. India needs to focus on fleet-led adoption and infrastructure build-up. Electrification of commercial fleets (especially in 2W and 3W) can provide the demand signal and scale required to attract manufacturing and R&D investments, allowing consumer adoption to follow. Also, there is merit in expanding the scope of FAME-II to accommodate battery swapping for 2Ws and 3Ws. There is an urgent need to review this scheme from a battery swapping perspective. India needs to focus on non-fiscal incentives to maximize impact with limited resources and enable access to clean energy to power clean mobility.
Rajesh Grover Co-Founder, Derma Essentia
This Pandemic has increased the importance of self-care. As remote working has become the new norm people are spending a lot of time indoors and are more inclined towards work-life balance, allotting a schedule for self-care & fitness. This has created the need for better formulations to target skin & hair-related concerns. Hence, the government needs to encourage companies for R&D. This will help companies to come up with innovative solutions & alternative technologies for various concerns. The skincare industry needs the right push from the government for better products catering to all skin & haircare concerns.
Rajat Banerji, Chairman- IDSA (Indian Direct Selling Association)
Direct Selling entities in India are collectively the biggest manufacturer of specialized food products like Nutraceuticals and Health Supplements which in addition to offering various physiological benefits also provide protection against chronic diseases. In 2019-20 alone, the Direct Selling industry generated a gross sale of over Rs. 9,300 Crores. The Covid-19 pandemic has increased awareness about the need of having a healthy lifestyle and products like nutraceuticals help in achieving these goals.
As a matter of fact, as per IDSA’s survey to determine the impact of Covid-19 on Direct Selling in India, it was found that during the months April 2020 – September 2020 of FY 2020-21, the sale of wellness products registered an increase of 20.45% over the similar period in FY 2019-20. The Direct Selling industry would welcome a reduction in GST applicable on these products from 18% to 12%. This will increase the number of consumers of these products and it is expected that overall the GST collection against this category will register a substantial increase.
Maninder Singh Bajwa, CEO and Founder, iScuela
I am hoping the budget has announcements on regulation and framework to help the EdTech sector flourish. Additionally, there should be increased support towards startups and small-mid enterprises in the EdTech space. In the last few years, we have witnessed an increased focus of the government on eLearning in the public sector. As smartphone and internet penetration continues, we are hopeful that there will be various initiatives accelerating eLearning programs across the nation. This will slowly but surely go a long way in bridging the digital divide.
Awal Madaan, CEO and Founder, AwalEnglish.com
As per my opinion, shaping the future of education is pretty important this year. The education technology industry has witnessed revolutionary changes ever since the COVID-19 pandemic has entered our lives with schools as well as other educational institutions being shut and lectures being shifted online. This transition from the traditional way of learning to online classes has helped EdTech start-ups grow at a rapid rate and this trend will most likely continue for years to come. This is why stakeholders in the EdTech business have high hopes for this year’s budget and are expecting the Government of India to increase the expenditure on education in this year’s Union budget. All this will help make digital education accessible to the rural sectors by ensuring the availability of high-speed internet connectivity, laptops, smartphones, etc. Either through programs executed directly by the government or through the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model.
Kunal Vaid, Founder-Resham Sutra
“We would like to see a more inclusive budget with higher levels of focus on women’s development and on rural employment and livelihood generation, as these sectors currently constitute over 50 per cent of the Indian economy. New and fresh ideas are needed to improve income opportunities and to increase the productivity of rural women in the poor and underserved parts of the country. Additionally, the Government must focus on the creation of non-agricultural income streams for bettering livelihoods for the rural women, as well as increase investments in community rural livelihood infrastructure building and development and furthering training infrastructure, including skill training for aspiring micro-entrepreneurs in rural India as well as technical training to the rural producers.
We also strongly feel that the scope of existing schemes/initiatives like textile mega parks need to be broadened and implemented for distributed rural production centres and producer companies — as they are the backbone of the Indian textile industry. Furthermore, the Government should address the need of setting up village-level procurement centres and prioritize ensuring easier access to affordable credit for all rural women textile producers with minimum documentation. To this end, including the implementation of schemes like the PM Kisaan to be in the name of women, irrespective of land ownership can be a great step. Lastly, I would like to suggest that the Government should simplify the process of formation of rural-based producer companies and allow partial shareholding to promoter organizations. Such initiatives will go a long way and have a multiplier effect on rural incomes and the economy at large, and these have the potential to further reduce the need for mass migration to urban areas for low-paid, unskilled work
Sanjib Jha, CEO & ED, Coverfox
This year, the 80C limit is expected to rise to a minimum of Rs 2 lakhs after a stagnancy of 7 years at Rs 1.5 lakhs. Even 80D limits for health insurance premiums are also likely to rise this FY, after a 5-year stagnation at Rs 25000 in FY2015-16. Since then, there has been no change except the senior citizen limit to Rs 50,000. In FY 2020, the industry has witnessed a significant rise in premium and inflation along with demand, Thus, the tax exemption limits also need enhancement.
The long-standing expectation of a complete tax exemption on annuity along with additional Rs 50,000 deduction U/S 80CCD(1b) to make it at par with NPS, would surely make annuity attractive. Unlike other countries, India has not provided any specific tax relief due to the pandemic. Thus, the insurance industry expects a relief in terms of lowering GST on insurance from 18% to 5%.
