HERBUDGET: Entrepreneurs call Budget 2016 a mixed bag

Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley has favoured start-up revolution in the country giving women entrepreneurs a special allocation. He praised the fact that now the job-seekers have become job-creators.  He also gave some attention to rural women and their household chores.

As in the case of start-ups, Jaitley has proposed 100% tax redemption in the first three of the five years for the start-ups setup during April 2016 to March 2019. However, MAT will apply in such cases.

Another proposition by Jaitley is about the allocation of 500cr funds for start-up entrepreneurs especially women and SC/STs. This allotment has come after the recently concluded Start-up India campaign. Through this allotment, the government plans to benefit around 2.5 lakh entrepreneurs. The campaign gave special notice to women entrepreneurs in the economic ecosystem, but the budget seems to have loosely attended to women’s need for a specific ecosystem.

“I would view this budget to have a positive push to industries across the board," said Swati Bhargava of CashKaro.com. "This budget focuses clearly on growth, development and job creation with particular focus on empowering the rural sector. In January, Narendra Modi, Prime Minister, India had launched ‘Startup India, Standup India’ initiative with the motive to take this sector to a new horizon. Clearly, this budget is in all support to the initiative,” she shared.

Nidhi Agarwal, Founder of Kaaryah, a formal clothing line who had earlier raised her concern around clarity with the Income Tax Act and Indian Companies Act said that if that was also addressed then it would have been better. But she seems quite happy with the current status of budget with start-up entrepreneurs being recognised in it.

"I am happy that the finance minister has recognized startups as a key partner in government programs and progress of the nation. The government has also kept the promises it made at Startup India and has clearly shown intent to empower entrepreneurs across the country. However, it would have been great if contradicting provisions in the Income Tax Act and Indian Companies Act were also addressed.”

“Also , one more thing about companies which have revenue 2 cr can have a flat rate of 8% tax , which can be beneficial to many. Anybody who's still in the startup stage, this could be one major help," says another entrepreneur Shreekala Kurup, Co-Founder and COO – CrackVerbal.

Talking about women in entrepreneurship, Neeti Tah of Chattis Rang showed a bit of disappointment. As she said, “some great opportunities were there for the Finance Minister to have left his stamp on this budget being a women-caring one, such as mandating a minimum allocation of funds for women entrepreneurs in MUDRA scheme, setting up specific help-desks for women entrepreneurs in departments related to Start-Up India Scheme and so on. All the same, we women will continue to forge our own paths ahead in our enterprises. A helping nudge from the Union Government budget would have provided impetus to thousands of young women like me in starting up and stabilising their own entrepreneurial ventures."

The budget has otherwise set a benchmark in the direction of growth. But, it has conveniently missed out on providing ways to create happy propositions for female taxpayers. The women in the top level of the biggest organisations in the country are certainly the most successful ones and yet gender diversity was not a concern shown in this year’s budget session. Some C-suite taxpayers would have definitely benefitted from it and it would have posed a lucrative option to attract more women in the higher level.

Picture Credit- DNA