'Budget needs to improve consumer spending capability'

By Sourjyendu Medda,

“The start-up eco-system, especially the social–e-commerce sector is at the cusp of exponential growth and we expect the budget to add to this momentum. One of the key areas that the budget needs to look into is improving consumer spending capability. A close look on personal taxes can help in reviving the decreasing demand, especially in India which remains a demand-driven economy. The other area that needs to be addressed is the simplification of the GST especially for e-commerce vendors as well as bringing in more parity among offline and online vendors. Simplifying the taxation process and making early-stage funding easier will also enable the eco-system significantly. Easing the norms with regard to debt financing of early-stage startups, removal of Angel Tax, providing investors exemption from capital gains tax, promoting redeployment of capital into startups and re-looking at the employee stock ownership plans (ESOPS) taxing from when the shares are vested to the time of sale will also help the industry tremendously.”

(The writer is Chief Business Officer & Founder, DealShare)