Budget 2019 is just a few hours away and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is all set to present her maiden Union Budget tomorrow. Even as she was getting ready for her speech in Parliament, a series of meetings were held with various captains of commerce and industry.  In that group, there is a section of entrepreneurs that would revere her presence in Parliament tomorrow in her high post because these are women entrepreneurs. These women entrepreneurs too have some expectations that they think can be met as the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, being a woman,  would understand their needs and demands.

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Speaking on the expectation from Nirmala Sitharaman Saumya Singh Rathore, Co-Founder, WinZO Games said, “It is a matter of great pride for all the women of India, as India's woman Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman will be presenting the budget on 5th of July.  I believe that the representation of Women in the Startup ecosystem has seen a noteworthy upsurge in recent times, with women driving the force of change and acting as an enabler in the various sector. The government through Budget 2019, should further enhance the ecosystem by formulating policies, which act as an enabler to support women in their entrepreneurial journey and to boost their spirit of excellence. This can be achieved through developing women focused incubation programs to unblock the developmental gaps and create a holistic and larger impact. Further, it should also focus on ease of regulations and compliance to help fuel innovation in New India and promote future growth.”

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She said that the India Inc believes the government will find it increasingly challenging to retain its fiscal deficit target of 3.4% set out in the Interim Budget for FY20 amid dwindling revenue and competing priorities for government spending. Although revenue growth visibility and expenditure compulsion suggest slippages could exceed 50bp, we believe the government will look to limit it to 20bp by budgeting for 5G auction revenue and optimistic revenue projections.

Seema Prem, CEO of FIA Technology said, “As budget 2019 is fast approaching, expectations of the industry have started to surface. The last government's progressive policies have made the environment favorable for entrepreneurs, it is believed that this budget will lay down reforms to boost the startup ecosystem in India. Also, seeing the current scenario of Banking in India, the Union Budget for 2019-20 is likely to spell out a roadmap for banking reforms.  FIA tech, a leading fintech company in digital payment & distribution systems for last mile financial inclusion in Indian and Nepal, would like the government to outline solutions to support fintech startups. With this budget, we expect that the government in the 2019 Union Budget introduces measures to ease working capital blockages, with a possible reduction in compliance burden."

The Business Correspondent (BC) industry is hopeful that the budget will address the procedural issue of Reverse Charge Mechanism (RCM). It is important that the Business Correspondent industry gets RCM exemption. BCs should be allowed to deposit in reverse charge in one state, preferably the state of registration or headquarters rather than taking registration in all states. This will improve the ease of doing business for the BC industry who are mainly fintech start-ups and reduce the cost of procedural compliance significantly. We also believe that AI can be leveraged by financial institutions to completely redefine how they operate, establish innovative products and services, and impact customer experience. Some of the challenges that we see are the lack of collaborative platforms for niche resource sharing, inability to tap public data systems due to questions around data privacy and ownership. GoI should formulate clear policies around data and create an enabling ecosystem for sharing relevant government data and public records. Allocating funding for AI startups will give the industry a much-needed impetus.

"Fintech expects this government to come up with measures to ease out the funding procedure and wants them to increase the reach of already available government funds under the corpus such as Financial Inclusion Funds. Financial Inclusion Funds as of now is not available for all form of business and is eligible only for NGOs & Banks. We also believe that like in the past, the government’s focus will be on deepening financial inclusion and formulate policies to strengthen the PMJDY program. Digitising the cash ecosystem, easing MSME lending and focus on removing barriers to adoption of mutual funds and insurance will be key focus areas,” Seema Prem concluded.