What Startups and SMEs can expect from the Union Budget 2018?

The startup ecosystem is improving from time to time because of new policies launched by Government of India. Indian startup ecosystem is now considered as one of the largest ecosystems worldwide. In last few years government has issued several measures to boost this ecosystem especially in terms of tax savings and startup India initiative.

But still, startup and investors are seeking some answers for the problems like angel taxation and the issue of providing legal recognition to angel networks through which a large number of angel deals take place. It is hoped that by this year union budget it will help in simplifying these problems. Let’s see from expert’s point of view that what startups can expect from Union Budget 2018.

Startup & SME Expectations from Union Budget 2018

Amit Singh, Co-Founder of Yitsol Technologies said:

Budget provisions to attract talent to startup/small companies: 

Startups adopt disruptive and innovative ways of creating value in terms of Jobs, Revenue and better tech and social facilities for the country. While doing this acquiring right resources becomes a challenge for the startups. It would be great if Government can offer special provisions for human resources working with startups. This would encourage resources to work for a startup, which is generally considered risky compared to working for established companies.

Special provisions to help startup/ smaller companies to participate in technology tenders of Government: 

Almost all the Government tenders come with very strict qualifying criteria in terms of revenue and balance sheets. There are startups/small companies with products/solutions which fit the technical requirement of a tender but these companies don't qualify for the financial qualifying criteria. It would be a good push for startups and entrepreneurship if Govt can have some norms to facilitate financial qualifying criteria for product/solutions coming from startup. 

Shantanu Singh Chauhan - Co-Founder of Startup Arena said:

While the government has identified SMB as a very important segment, and introduce a program like StartupIndia, accessing government contract is a far fetch dream for small businesses.

Few points from Union Budget 2018:

• The government should either lower entry barrier for its contracts or set up some kind of reservation for startups in government contracts.
• Most business and specifically in the pharma industry, business owners believe that GST is higher and the government should bring it down.
• Making StartupIndia accessible to startups, decreasing online transaction fees, and push for better infrastructure through smart cities was other areas of concerns raised by small businesses.
• Few of the businesses spoke about lowering government fees for company registration, trademark and patent filing. 
• The government only 2 days ago has removed stamp fees from company registration making company registration easy for entrepreneurs.

Mr.Pankaj Agarwal, Co-founder & MD of Just Organik said:

• We expect some good funding support to be available for startup India recognised companies through easy borrowing and extension of soft loans.
• We expect some policy initiative to support the startup, combined with make in India to support the upcoming newer industries and the easily available capital to do the same.
• Policy initiative to reduce the compliance load specifically the startups in the food domain.
• We expect the TAX holiday to extend for the seven years for the startups specifically for the manufacturing sector so that they can reinvest the profits into the company.

Rishabh Vyas,  Founder & CEO of Baromeeter said:

"We expect the government to reconsider the MAT policy and eradicate it for the start-ups. I also expect the government to think about the removal of Angel Tax to help the startup to grow. I hope the government will also clear its stance on getting incentives from digital payments. It’s really important for the government to come up with more clear policies with the budget 2018-19 to promote entrepreneurship among the youth and to encourage startups further. "