Union Budget 2023-24 has a number several pros and a few cons
Team L&M
Notwithstanding what the political leaders are saying against the Union Budget 2023-24, the general vibe says that it is a fairly good budget which has taken care of almost all sections of life. From education to health, from startups to travel & tourism, from finance firms to agriculture corporations and environment, there is some good for everyone. And the new income tax slabs are a major relief for the taxpayers.
Sandhya Naidu Janardhan, Founder & MD, Community Design Agency
It is encouraging and timely that the Government of India has included sustainable cities of tomorrow and developing key infrastructure in Tier 2 & Tier 3 cities as an important part in the 2023-24 Union Budget. In the backdrop of India’s presidency of the G-20 summit this year, and our crucial role in negotiations around climate change and adaptation funding for developing economies at COP 27 last year, we see incredible opportunities for inclusive and integrated approach to building climate resilient and sustainable green cities.
Abhishek Vyas, Founder & CEO, My Haul Store
The new income tax slabs are a major relief for the taxpayers and will provide the much-needed relief in the current economic scenario. The reduction in tax from 42 per cent to 39 per cent for high earning individuals is a welcome change and will encourage more investment and spending in the economy.
I am also excited about the focus on agritech start-ups and the allocation of funds for bringing innovative solutions to the challenges faced by farmers. Agriculture is the backbone of our country and providing support and encouragement to these start-ups will lead to the growth of the sector and in turn, the economy.
The government’s push to ease of doing business by making PAN card a single business identifier for all digital systems of specified government agencies is a step in the right direction. The reduction of 39,000 compliances and 3,400 legal proceedings will simplify the business process and provide a level playing field for all businesses.
Ruchit Garg, Founder & CEO, Harvesting India Pvt Ltd
I welcome the announcement made by the Hon’ble Finance Minister to invest in the agri-tech space, especially focused on rural India. I believe that’s where India has huge potential and agriculture is going to make India a superpower and a multi-million trillion-dollar economy. This can happen only through agriculture. I hope that these funds can be extended to cooperatives and organizations and be made easier for access. I also welcome the proposal by the government to launch a new scheme, PM MATSYA SAMPADA YOJANA which is expected to help boost agriculture demand. It is also encouraging to see the focus is given to millets crops, agri-credit and small farmers and envisages India becoming a global hub for Sri Ann or Millets. The plan to set-up 10,000 bio input resource centres along with assistance to 1 crore farmers to adopt natural farming methods over the next 3 years is definitely the right step towards the farmer community.”
Manas Madhu, Co-Founder, Beyond Snack, a plant based savoury snacks brand
In terms of personal income tax, it is encouraging to see that the rebate limit has now been increased in the new regime from 5 lakh to 7 lakh. This will increase disposable income levels and stimulate the FMCG industry’s demand cycle. Furthermore, despite the epidemic, India has risen to become the world’s third largest ecosystem for start-ups, and ranks second in innovation quality among middle-income countries, according to the Budget 2023. This will encourage businesses in the FMCG industry to develop distinctive offerings for the Indian market. I am glad to see a budget that prioritises agritech and agriculture. The Agriculture Accelerator Fund and digital public infrastructure for agriculture will aid farmers and agritech start-ups looking for modern technologies, farm inputs, and loans. Furthermore, the Finance Minister’s decision to establish a decentralised storage capacity for farmers will assist them in pricing their produce at competitive prices so that it may be sold at appropriate times.”
Eric Braganza, President, CEAMA
We welcome the Budget laid out by the government, which is in line with the Atmanirbhar Bharat vision and focuses on the critical pillars of growth such as Infrastructure, green growth, ease of doing business, inclusive development, and digitisation, which will provide the much-needed impetus to the economy. The steps towards reducing custom duty on parts of open cells of TV panels to 2.5 per cent will accelerate manufacturing and enable sales-growth of televisions. Additionally, the revision of personal income tax will aid in increased purchasing power and help to boost consumption across multiple sectors.
The reduction in compliance and legal provisions, to enhance ease of doing business, shall augment competitive business environment for domestic manufacturing companies and will go a long way in boosting indigenous manufacturing.
The emphasis on green growth will encourage the demand for energy-efficient products, contributing towards the reduction of carbon intensity of the economy. Moreover, continued focus on PLI and the Phased Manufacturing Plan will help generate employment and boost indigenous manufacturing ecosystem.
Sandesh Sarang, Revenue Director-India, Nepal, Bangladesh & Sri Lanka, Infobip
The roll-out of 5G services in October 2022 was a major disruption in the telecom sector, essentially since it opened the doorway to internet connectivity and dependent industries to register enormous growth. However, the service has so far remained limited to select regions in the country, which deterred it from fulfilling its purpose of accelerating digital growth. We are happy that the government has taken cognizance of this issue in today’s Union Budget by announcing 100 dedicated labs to effectively develop 5G services in India. This move will expand the reach of the 5G network from an existing 50 cities to even the remotest corners of the country, which is a welcome step towards propelling the government’s vision of creating a ‘Digital India’.
Captain Nikunj Parashar, Founder & MD, Sagar Defence Engineering Pvt. Ltd
Happy to note that Union Budget has included start-up-friendly initiatives to give a contingency to starts up to recover their losses and focus more on enhancing technological advancement of their innovations, research, and development.
By extending the date of incorporation for start-ups seeking income tax incentives from 31.03.23 to 31.3.24 along with extending the benefit of carrying forward losses on changes in shareholding of start-ups from seven to ten years after incorporation, the first Union Budget will help chaperon us through Amrit Kaal to provide our small contribution #MakeInIndia for an #AtmanirbharBharat by bringing enormous patronage to the start-up ecosystem and promoting innovation.
Anil Verma, Executive Director and CEO, Godrej & Boyce
The renewed thrust on investment in infrastructure will drive the productivity of our economy and generate employment. Our competitiveness in the global economy will also be improved through the thrust on research in fields like 5G services, AI and agriculture. Together with the initiatives to reduce the compliance burden and de-criminalise several regulatory provisions, it will improve the ease of doing business in India and attract fresh investments. Measures to improve rural incomes and reduce personal income tax rates will deliver more disposable income in the hands of people, driving consumption.
Sandeep Raheja, Chairman, K Raheja Realty
After 20 months, the recovery of the real estate housing in India shelled out an optimistic overview of the sector’s performance. The Union Budget 2023 projects a reassuring outlay for the next fiscal year. This year’s budget is taking the lead in attracting more investors and fostering infrastructure development projects in the urban areas. The new regime’s highest surcharge levied under personal income tax has been reduced significantly from 37% to 25% and increased income tax rebate to up to Rs. 7 Lakh, this will result in increasing the disposable income which will help investment and spending, leading to growth in both real estate & the economy.”
Gaurav Balani, DGM-Marketing, Infiniti Mall
With a positive growth estimate of 7 per cent and change in personal tax regime, the pulse of the budget is optimistic towards the sector. While the retail and entertainment industry is reviving, formalising digital payments, boost of AI driven tools and increase in per capita income will be great catalysts to the sector and increase the spending capabilities and facilitate consumption for Retail Industry as a whole, which include Malls. The budget has focused a stronger stimulus to the middle class with impetus to growth as well as job creation and with staggering amount of GST collection in January 2023, the fiscal year 2023 – 2024 can bring in a steep upward trend for spends in the retail and entertainment sector.”
Shekar Sivasubramanian, CEO, Wadhwani AI
The Government of India is embracing AI technology to bring about positive change and improving the lives and livelihoods of farmers nationwide through public-private partnerships, extension services, and market linkages. The use of AI and other digital technologies will play a key role in bringing about sustainable growth and greater prosperity for all in the agriculture sector and other sections of the population.
Rohit Garg, CEO and Co-Founder, SmartCoin
Continued boost in digitisation and stronger digital public infrastructure as underlined by the new Union Budget will fillip economic growth, with positive implications for digital lending and expected growth in share for the fintech sector as a whole. The focus outlined on financial inclusion, financial literacy and reaching the last mile will greatly benefit the players operating under this agenda. It will also herald greater investor confidence in the industry. The new tax regime will ensure more cash in hand for the citizens.
Rishabh Siroya, Founder, Siroya Corp
An extremely well-balanced budget focussed on growth driven by capital expenditure while giving an adequate push to rural welfare and agriculture. Government has taken it to a new zone with a well-tuned perfection between growth and stability. The rise in capital expenditure by 33 per cent to Rs 10 lac cr is the shot in the arm heading a multiplier effect on the economy. High amount of schemes and tax benefits to rural economy and taxpayers will enhance consumption growth in India, much beyond expectations. This budget enables domestic consumption growth while boosting business & investment sentiment for corporates
Amisha Vora – Chairperson & MD, Prabhudas Lilladher Group
It is a highly pragmatic and growth-oriented budget which will help India remain amongst fastest growing economies globally. FY23-24 budget is walking the talk and continues Govt focus on bottom end of pyramid with free food grains, taxation relief to middle class, enhancing Agri credit, heightened capex spend with Rs13.7 trillion capex and focus on green energy, energy transition etc. This budget targets inclusive growth with focus on increasing consumption through benefits to middle class and impetus to industry to spur investment for domestic manufacturing and infrastructure development.
Rahul Raj, Founder & CEO, FloBiz
Several budget 2023 announcements demonstrate the government’s intent to give a boost to the positive growth momentum of Indian MSMEs. It prioritises the goal of promoting women entrepreneurs’ representation in the MSME sector in India by extending raw materials supply and better marketing avenues to them. Vivad se Vishwas reliefs for MSMEs to resolve their existing and future disputes with government undertakings is another effort among the host of measures announced for ease of doing business in India. Adequate access to working capital remains a constraint for MSMEs in India; thus, the revamped Credit Guarantee Scheme and setting up of the National Financial Information Registry and entity DigiLocker will further alleviate the credit-supply concerns of the sector. The cascading effect of macroeconomic measures, such as a hike in capital expenditure, a huge increase in allocation for PM Awaas Yojana and a reduction in personal income taxes, will also create favourable opportunities in the MSME sector. The level of importance dedicated to MSMEs in this budget indicates the key role MSMEs will play as economic drivers in this Amrit Kaal for India.
Rishi Agrawal, CEO & Co-Founder, TeamLease RegTech
From an ease of doing business perspective, this looks like a dream budget clearly acknowledging that ease of compliance is a key economic lever. It signals a technology-led transition towards paperless compliance. There is a clear push towards building a trust based governance model. Extending the scope of Digi-Locker to include business entities is a welcome step towards digitizing compliance. The proposal to use PAN as a common identifier is another great step towards creating a unique enterprise identity. This will eliminate the need to have over 20 different enterprise identities in the current environment. A system of unified filing process is proposed to be set up obviating the need for separate submission of same information to different agencies, reducing inefficiency and duplication of effort.
Ramesh Jhajharia, CEO & Co-Founder, Tradexa
The 2023-24 budget has laid clear emphasis on prioritizing economic growth with focus on capital spending to generate growth and employment. The announcement relating to MSMEs and thrust on digital banking will further go a long way in supporting the economy. It is good to see the government’s focus on facilitating the growth of the MSME sector in this year’s budget. MSMEs to get 95% of forfeited amount for contract failure during Covid-19 which is a highly appreciative move. Another much-needed move by the government is the credit guarantee for MSMEs where the revamped scheme will take effect from April 1, 2023 with infusion of ₹9,000 crore corpus.
Rupa Bohra, Managing Director, TNS India Foundation
I believe the union budget is pointing in the right direction for harnessing India’s economic potential. The importance given to green growth, inclusive development, and women’s economic empowerment shows that sustainable development is at the heart of India’s economic growth. The budget allocations reflect the significance of these components and the potential that vulnerable sections have to contribute to the economy. I am hopeful for a promising future as I see the current budget being the appropriate step towards a more empowered and equitable India. The focus on skill and capacity building of women and youth will prove to be beneficial for the growth of the economy, especially in rural areas. However, we were expecting more clarity regarding the CSR expenditure by the corporates for the social sector.
Sejal Sheth, CEO & Co-Founder, EasyInherit
The Finance Minister’s Budget announcement to widen the scope of documents available on DigiLocker for individuals will truly boost the FinTech ecosystem by simplifying processes ranging from personal loans all the way up to Inheritance management and succession. In effect – the playground is now ready for all players to drive solutions for a Digital India, which will ensure that we move to authenticated digital sharing.
Amit D Mishra, CEO and Founder, iMocha
The Union Government’s budget has rightly identified the need to ramp up skill development and upskilling among youth to make them job ready for the future. Announcements such as setting up of 3 AI Centers of Excellence to train youth on AI skills, and the decision to setup a unified Skill India Digital platform with focus on Coding, AI, IoT and Robotics related skills is going to be the game changer for Indian SaaS and technology industry. Further, 30 Skill India International Centers will also be setup across states, and that will ensure that there is a uniformity of quality talent in all the states.
Sameer Aggarwal, CEO & Founder, Revfin
The government’s dedication to ‘green growth’ approach promoting environmental sustainability, as emphasized by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the recent Union Budget 2023, is a commendable development. The emphasis on reducing carbon footprint and generating employment through green growth initiatives displays a deep comprehension of the interdependence of the environment and the economy. The 7 main priorities, referred to as “Saptrishi,” will drive sustainable and environmentally friendly economic development and this, truly is in the direction of India seeking a leadership role in mitigating the global climate crisis. Budget is very positive for the rural economy as it’s talking about investemnets and credit schemes in agriculture, fishery, cattle etc and this would higher income for rural folks and now they may have higher capacity to have L5 ( e rickshaw for comercial purposes) and better capacity to repay EMIs. Customs duty exemption is being extended to imports of capital goods and machinery required for the manufacture of lithium-ion cells for batteries used in electric vehicles to further boost green mobility.
Sunil Kharbanda, Co-Founder & COO, Trezix
The spirit of resilience has been proven by the 6.3 crore micro, small, and medium firms, which account for 30% of GDP and employ approximately 11 crore people. With sales in numerous industries throughout the MSME sector surpassing 90% of pre-pandemic levels, India’s small firms are rewriting history with enhanced import-export trade and driving business globally. The budget shows positivity and has reduced import duties on raw materials to support Make in India and MSMEs, enhancing competitiveness in global markets and leading to a rise in exports.
Sumit Sabharwal, CEO of TeamLease HRtech
The Focus on AI is a step in the right direction. It’ll accelerate the digitalization of the Indian economy. Indian companies in sectors like health tech, HR tech, fintech, etc will compete globally if our human capital is skilled in AI.” Tax reform makes complete sense considering the inflation. It’ll increase the disposable income in the hands of the Indian workforce; and push the demand in the market. It’ll make India stronger to have an accelerated growth. Tax rebates will boost consumption from the salaried professional. It’ll ultimately push the demand in the market. A higher disposable income will ensure that the Indian salaried class can keep improving their living standard. It’ll be overall beneficial for the employee without putting any extra burden on the employers. The budget’s focus on AI clearly shows that the government wants to develop our human capital in terms of expertise in technology. Our students will benefit from it in the long run to gain new skills that are more relavant in the current digital and technology space.
Dr Rajesh Verma, Dean, Strategy & Marketing, Mittal School of Business, Lovely Professional University
Considering the current employment scenario coupled with news of lay-offs coming from many companies & recession fears, it was expected that the Government will focus on jobs. So, it was not a surprise that the Finance Minister declared youth power as one of the seven priorities and job creation as one of the key focuses of the national budget and announced the highest Capex spending (3.3.% of GDP) proposed to support the economy & job creation. The announcement of PMKVY 4.0 to skill lakhs of youth within the next three years in alignment with the needs for Industry 4.0 is highly appreciable as it will lead to the enhancement of employability. As IT sector has the potential to generate more jobs, skills in AI, coding, mechatronics, drones, 3d printing and more would be the focus.
Vinit Garg, Founder & CEO, Mylo
Measures such as the extension of the tax benefit eligibility to startups incorporated before April 1, 2024, show a commitment to creating a more favourable environment for startups, enabling us to take bigger risks, innovate, and contribute to the economic development of the country. The government’s commitment to creating a supportive environment for startups is crucial in establishing India as a global hub for innovation and entrepreneurship.
Harsh Vardhan, Founder, and CEO, Inveda
The Union Budget proposes various exemptions and it can be noted as this year will be promising in the beauty and wellness sector. Numerous positive initiatives included in the budget will contribute to the expansion of the economy and uplift the lifestyle of Indians through it. The efforts which are clearly visible from the government’s side are really needed and appreciated as people are more aware of the possible opportunities and options available to them. The decision to identify PAN as a business identifier is a really good initiative as it will simplify the business process. Additionally, the participation and empowerment of women in start-ups and businesses will add to great value to the country’s economy. We are looking forward to this amazing year and are really excited to see humongous sales benefitting the county and citizens alike.
Raktim Chattopadhyay, Founder & CEO, Esperer Nutrition Group
The Union Budget 23-24 presented by the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitraman is no doubt a sign that the Indian economy is moving towards a bright future. I think the budget has the right balance from education to health to agriculture to rural development, it all as expected like a common man’s budget . Significant increase over capital expenditure is going to add value in growing Indian GDP. The budget has rightly focused on controlling inflation and generating jobs. And as per me this budget is an immediate relief to the people.
