Budget 2019 expectations: Here is what industry experts want

Budget 2019 D-Day is here and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is set to make the presentation tomorrow, which will decide the roadmap of India's growth for the next one year and perhaps beyond. The economic survey presented on Thursday has already posed a challenge for Modi government by saying that the government should look for new ways to find money without compromising the fiscal deficit targets. It said that a rise in social sector spending and higher allocation to welfare schemes like PM Kisan pose fiscal challenge to the Modi government. 

Meanwhile, the industry experts have high hopes from the Budget as well. Here is what they expect from Modi government -

Heena Arora, Marketing & Finance Head, All India ITR -

"With the Union Budget 2019 coming out in 2 days, we are expecting that it will be beneficial to the common man continuing the trend set by the interim budget in February 2019. Although this will be Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s maiden budget, we are anticipating her to concentrate on job creation, changes in tax rates and slabs, accelerating economic growth and opening the financial markets for investors across all strata to pave the way for India to become a $5 trillion economy by 2024 as proposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Raising the tax exemption limit from 1.5 lakhs to 2 lakhs for investments and savings under Section 80C of the Income Tax law and raising the basic exemption limit from 2.5 lakhs to 5 lakhs for salaried individuals will bring a tremendously positive impact on the daily lives of most citizens."  

Lizzie Chapman, CO- Founder & CEO, ZestMoney -

"A meticulous approach of incorporating budding entrepreneurs in tier 2 and 3 cities can augment the startup ecosystem of the country, and contribute back to the society by creating employment. Additionally, the government should consider longer tax holidays for entrepreneurs so at least taxes aren’t bordering our dreams." 

Sanjay Kaul, Founder & CEO, Sofyx - 

"Small retailers are pivotal to India’s economy given the population density of towns and cities. While the country is moving forward rapidly these retailers are being left behind. Govt needs to dedicate resources and implement programs to train and digitize these shops so that they can compete in Digital India. Millions of households derive their income from these shops and yet they are struggling to keep up with the changing environment. Since technology usage is key for retail businesses today, we hope that this Budget brings new initiatives aimed at driving digital adoption and to push forward new reforms as part of ‘Digital India 2.0’."

Narayan Mahadevan, Co-Founder at BridgeLabz -

"What we are seeing is that even if the net addition of employees has increased from last year, the demand for qualified talent in emerging tech due to digital adoption and agile processes is far outnumbering the supply. The challenge is that the demand for Support and ITeS services is slowing down which in turn is the sector that has a major concentration of engineers. The need is for the Industry, Government and the Institutions to come and work together at a war footing to not only skill the excess supply of engineers in emerging tech but also provide them the real work environment. For this traditional training, the approach will not work as the industry would need engineers with little experience. 

Another challenge is the ever-changing technology landscape and agile processes. Hence it's required that the Engineers are provided an environment to self learn primarily through experiential learning which will enable them to get productive quickly as well as will help them in future to easily adapt to the changing technology landscape."

Gautam Bhasin, Founder, Prospurts -

"Since reviving economic growth is the biggest challenge India is facing, union budget should be growth & business oriented, should help India attract investments and should focus on rationalising income tax structures. The focus should be on government spending especially in the infrastructure sector. Reducing the burden of income tax among the individuals, and reduction in corporate income tax should be a priority. Additionally, on the personal investment front, the government should consider uniform tax treatment of MF retirement Funds and NPS, tax parity between Mutual Funds and ULIPs. Also, Mutual Funds should be included in the list of investments that qualify for capital gains exemption under Section 54EC. Increase in the limit for investments u/s 80C, and increase in 80D limit for health insurance premium will also go a long way in supporting the investments environment in the country."