Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash"/>
Ramesh Nair, CEO + MD(India) Market Development, Asia, Colliers
“Budget 2022 should continue to focus on expansionary policy measures to boost consumer spending and investment. Measures to boost affordable and mid-income housing in the form of extension and expansion of tax benefit for first-time home buyers, sops for developers engaged in affordable housing & rental housing projects will have a positive domino effect on the real estate sector and the overall economy. In line with India’s ‘net zero’ targets, the Budget should lay a road map for ensuring sustainable real estate development through financial & non-financial incentives.”
Mr. Mayur Shah, Managing Director- Marathon Group
“To pass on greater benefits of homeownership, the government should consider increasing the available tax deduction for home loan interest under section 24B from Rs. 2 lacs to Rs. 5 lacs and also consider increasing the home loan principal deduction under section 80C from the current 1.5 L limit.
The definition of affordable housing should be revised from the current limit of 45 lacs to at least 75 lacs or else the criteria should be changed to only apartment size of under 60 sqm in metros, and not the cost of the flat, as the cost in metros is invariably higher than non-metros. This would level the playing field and give a big boost to buyers in metro areas. Currently, very few projects within the city come under the definition of affordable housing when in fact, the need of the hour in a city like Mumbai is to create a more affordable housing stock. The project eligibility deadline for affordable housing also should be extended to 2023.
The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana benefit for the first-time homebuyers in the Middle Income Group lapsed on 31st March 2020 and should be extended further so that first-time buyers are encouraged to enter the market”
Mr. Amit Goyal, CEO, India Sotheby’s International Realty
Right at the top of the industry’s wishlist has been the enhancement of the income tax deduction limit against home loans. The current deduction limit of Rs. 2 lakh per annum has remained unchanged for several years. We hope Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will accept this demand and raise the tax offset on home loan interest to at least Rs 5 lakh. This single move has the potential to boost India’s housing market and, in turn, accelerate economic growth.
Also, the difference of more than 10% between the circle rates and agreement values of properties translates into tax penalties under Section 43CA of the Income Tax Act. The government must appreciate that the difference between the circle rate and actual price is much higher in certain areas of Delhi and other parts of the country. Hence, the government should consider extending the relief to up to 20% of the difference.
The other pain point is the applicable tax deducted at source (TDS) on property transactions for NRIs. IT is way too high and should be reduced from the current 28.49%, as the refund process still takes significantly longer.
Mukund Rao, Co-Founder, muvin
On the lending side, in particular, the guidelines being envisaged by the RBI around digital lending will bring about some much-needed transparency for consumers. The Niti Ayog recommendations on establishing a framework for Digital Banks will help neobanks to potentially transition from being pure technology and customer acquisition layer to a full-fledged digital bank. This in turn will open up massive opportunities to offer very customized and tailored offerings to both retail and enterprise customers in the country.
KYC requirements can be further streamlined- clear guidance could be provided on Aadhar based KYCwith OTP. Furthermore, incentives should be provided for Video KYC as an onboarding option. I believe that remote onboarding initiatives especially in the current pandemic situation would be key to further driving the adoption of fintech platforms.
Mr. Kamal Singal, MD & CEO of Arvind SmartSpaces Ltd.
“Throughout the pandemic, the real estate sector has shown substantial resilience in an otherwise gloomy macroeconomic environment. Given that the sector along with the construction sector is one of the largest employment generators in the country and contributes nearly 10% to India’s GDP, some handholding by the Government especially on the consumer side will go a long way in keeping the momentum going. For several years, the exemption limits provided under Section 80 C and Section 24 have remained stagnant and have not been indexed to inflation. Providing a separate exception for principal repayments under section 80 C delinked from other categories like PF and insurance will encourage investment in real estate.
Another long overdue request from the sector is to be granted industry status. While on the consumer side, interest rates are at an all-time low, the same is not true for developers. Access to low cost funding and easier access to capital will lower the cost of doing business in the sector and will ultimately result in making homes more affordable. Finally, I hope the budget will address the issue of rapidly rising input costs. Raw material prices have seen an unprecedented increase over the last 12 to 15 months and a continuation of this trend will put margins of the sector under pressure and push developers to pass on these increases to the consumer.”
Mr. Karan Talreja, Founder, Reset Tech
The government has started multiple initiatives in the last two years to cater to the requirements of healthcare infrastructure in the country. We probably need focused investment and spread awareness around lifestyle diseases for the betterment of the people. Since the third wave has already forged in and it has made everyone realize the importance of a robust healthcare ecosystem. Therefore, expected the government to invest in the evolution of resources that enable the monitoring of the lifestyle-related diseases of populations. Hence, there is a demand for a separate budget allocation for Indian startups that ventured
into deep technologies for the augmentation of holistic solutions to lifestyle diseases. Expectation from the industry is the process of research and development to continue extensively which demands proper financial support that needs to be fulfilled by the government.
The industry has received great support from the government as well to support the startup ecosystem. Hence as the way forward, we are expecting more support and encouragement to match the global industry standard and cater to the common people as per their needs and requirements.
Dr. HR Nagendra, Chancellor of (S-VYASA)
During the last year’s budget, it was recognized by the government that the AYUSH sector has a great potential to serve a huge number of healthcare needs of people and contribute to the growth and development of this country. Rightly the Hon’ble PM has inducted a Cabinet minister rank and MOS to the ministry of AYUSH. It is now important and expected to promote new drug discoveries in systems of AYUSH extensively.
Also to promote cost-effective and evidence-based yoga Therapy, Naturopathy, and other Non-Pharmacological interventions. For this purpose, we hope the government will allow substantially more funding in the new budget for research to expedite and facilitate high-end research. As the government is already spending and investing a lot in the health sector, it is necessary to allow substantially more funds for the AYUSH Sector.
Dr. Akshay Singhal, Founder, Log 9 materials
In the upcoming Union Budget, from the EV ecosystem perspective, we hope to see that the FAME Subsidy corpus should be extended to EV retro fitment kits. Additionally, more R&D incentives should be given for energy storage and EV technology-related developments in India, as well as R&D investments made into local technology developments, which should be made 100% adjustable against corporate taxes.
Mr. Deepak MV, CEO & Co-Founder, Etrio
“At a time when EV adoption is gaining unprecedented momentum despite many challenges, in the upcoming Union Budget 2022, we at Etrio would like to see the Finance Minister address the critically-important area of making wide and varied range of financing options available for EV commercial vehicles’ buyers – as this is extremely critical for further increased uptake of EVs in India, going forward. To this end, the Government should make the EV sector a priority lending sector for financial institutions. Additionally, reducing the GST taxation on Lithium-ion batteries and EV spare parts and components can also be a great step forward from the EV manufacturing and OEM point of view. Given that increased adoption of EVs in the logistics and last-mile delivery, the segment is the need of the hour to reduce Carbon emissions, the Government must also come up with additional sops or incentives for the nation’s fleet aggregators to switch entirely from IC engines to EVs in order to pave a sustainable and zero-emissions future. Last but not the least, we also hope that this Budget answers the need for revitalizing the B2B retro fitment (ICE to EV conversion) space pan-India by bringing retro fitment under the ambit of FAME-II.”
Mr. Abhishek Pathak, Founder & CEO, Greenwear
“I expect the budget to lay down a 5-year plan to increase participation/usage of renewable energy resources by decentralized small industries and craft sector. The government should ensure growth in procurement from start-ups working with renewable energy resources. The textile industry alone has the potential to reduce carbon footprint by a huge margin along with creating jobs at the local level. The textile and Fashion industry needs urgent reforms in order to reduce polluting earth. We are taking one step at a time and currently are very small against the problem. However, we believe that the solar-vastra value chain if added with natural fibers and organic processes will create an immense impact in reducing carbon footprint from the textile industry. If only 5% of Indian villages become solar charkha clusters (around 30,000), it can produce 180 Cr kgs cotton yarn which is almost 50% of India’s current cotton yarn capacity, and generate livelihood for 1.2 Cr people without migrating from their villages.”
Shivam Singhee, CEO & Co-Founder, Awshad
As a startup in the wellness and medical cannabis space, we have benefited from the earlier government initiatives like the startup initiative and the Make in India initiative that helped us create a space for ourselves. However, in 2022 we hope to see the Government expand on these schemes and help home-grown brands grow and thrive in the Indian market. We also hope there will be incentives in place to help Indian brands expand their markets internationally and help bring FDI to the exponentially growing wellness sector. We also hope the government will offer more tax relaxation to startups in the wellness space to help them compete with giant multinationals eyeing to control this sector.
Raj Mruthyunjayappa, President- India, Anthology Inc
Last year was a watershed year for the Indian start-up ecosystem that led to the birth of numerous unicorns including few in the edtech space, in a clear indication that education in India is about to witness a digital disruption. The pandemic has already kick-started that revolution with learning moving significantly online in schools and colleges across India. With upskilling and reskilling becoming the new watchwords, there is ample opportunity for educational institutions to boost their efforts to revitalise education by adopting technology tools that will foster greater inclusivity. The National Education Policy (NEP) has identified skill gaps and has mapped local opportunities by putting together a skills framework.
I hope that the Union Budget will look into augmenting the efforts in this space by setting aside a corpus that will help in creating a focused India Education Stack with the necessary infrastructure and focus on reskilling especially in tier-II and III towns and rural areas.
This would be important if we have to sustain our projected GDP levels. Anthology has committed itself to partnering the efforts of the government in the education sector nationally, while also developing integrated skill analytics and e-governance at the state level. Without knowledge there is no progress and we are sure the finance minister will back all efforts in the education sector by channelizing resources that will substantially boost primary and higher education in the country.
Kushal Raj Chakravorty, Founder, Lotus Petal Foundation
“The country has never spent the 6% of GDP on education as recommended by every national policy since 1968. In fact almost Rs. 5000 cr taken away from school education in FY 2021-22 was disheartening. The disruption caused in school education by the pandemic requires out-of-the-box thinking to mitigate its long-term impact on the nation’s development. The NEP 2020, a cornerstone for the way forward, stood out with its foresight and ahead of the curve ideas. The same rigour will be needed in due investment in the infrastructure, giving digital access to the teachers and children, and enhancing teaching capacity and capability. We look forward to a higher allocation to education in the areas needed in a post-pandemic system. ”
Nishant Behl, Founder of Expand My Business.
“To increase demand, the b2b services procurement and fulfillment companies like Expand My Business are seeking a reduction in 18% GST to 5%. This move will empower the sector by lowering operational costs and increasing exports with other forward & backward linkage industries to achieve growth while achieving higher export targets, consequently pushing the economy towards the targeted $1 trillion worth of exports, as set by the Government. The B2B e-commerce market is also anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 18.7% from 2021 to 2028.”
“Budget 2022 should provide incentives for the MSME sector for better integration of digital payment methods. By expanding the client base and boosting cash flow via faster money realization; giving upsell chances; lowering costs and establishing a digital footprint that allows for easier access to loans at lower rates, The digital payment ecosystem can further flourish.”
Naveen Mypala, Founder of URBAN Living.
“Personal tax relief, whether in the form of lower rates or altered tax slabs, is the need of the hour, given the previous rise in the Section 80C deduction limit (to Rs 1.5 lakh per year) occurred in 2014. Furthermore, the amount of investible surplus in people’s hands has been decreasing. The government could encourage home buyers by increasing the tax deduction on home loan interest to Rs 5 lakh, up from Rs 2 lakh, in order to boost demand. Income tax slab adjustments will provide a financial buffer to the middle class when purchasing a home in this regard. For long-term real estate expansion, a demand-pull must be developed in this direction.”
Abhinav Mital, Founder of The WorldGrad.
“GST reductions will be highly appreciated by the students and the education sector; the cost of upskilling makes premier opportunities inaccessible for the students in addition to the mental stress and financial burden it puts on them. Though core education for degrees and diplomas is GST-free; however, allied services or education empowerment in the form of certificates, online learning courses, and other such opportunities are not.”
“The government should provide significant & sizable assistance to students by lowering the 18% GST on education services and associated categories, decreasing their direct financial strain by 10-15%, and encouraging more individuals to upskill themselves to better prepare for successful careers and growth of the nation.
Moreover, education facilitation should be viewed as a significant contribution to overall educational achievement.”
