Hyderabad Startups urge Centre for tax breaks, more Funds

Introduction

Ahead of the presentation of the Union Budget on February 1, stakeholders from Hyderabad's startup ecosystem are demanding a slew of sops including tax breaks, digitisation of various tax filing procedures, waivers and better funding opportunities to make the ecosystem much more dynamic.

As of now, there is a myriad of problems in the startup ecosystem. For instance, there is a huge amount of work for early-stage entrepreneurs with filing direct taxes, indirect taxes, state compliances and others.

“Digitisation and waivers may be the key (to solve that issue),” said Jay Krishnan, General Partner with Mantra Capital.

“Keeping the Atal Incubation Mission going on would provide a continuing thrust, specifically for new areas that are relevant for India. I would be thrilled if the government addresses these two components, in addition to sops and funds, quite like last year,” said Krishnan.

For startups now, research innovation and funding are also major concerns. Many startups languish for years until they are able to secure funds from investors.

“It would be great if the Central government can focus on creating an innovation fund of sorts, which would spur the growth of high-potential startups. An example of this is the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the US,” We-Hub CEO Deepthi Ravula told Express. Apart from that, Ravula also stressed on improving skilling programmes in emerging areas such as AI and so on and also for creating easier procurement norms in the e-marketplace.

Although the new tax reforms have been welcomed by the industry, startups are still facing a financial storm in terms of taxes.

T-Hub CEO Ravi Narayan urged the Central government to ‘create the most comfortable and encouraging environment by addressing the unresolved ambiguities about startups' income tax (I-T) related issues.'

“We must acknowledge the government's recent efforts to eliminate bottlenecks for entrepreneurs. I believe that Budget 2020 needs to focus on building a culture of openness and nurture innovation in the country. Supportive government policies, enabling infrastructure and a world-class educational ecosystem will go a long way in empowering next-gen entrepreneurs,” he said.

Reiterating similar views, Prasad Vanga, the founder and CEO of Anthill Ventures, said, “The budget should have an allocation for better tax breaks for investing in start-ups. It will bring more capital in and boost the entrepreneurial ecosystem.”

Early-stage entrepreneurs in a fix As of now, there is a large amount of work for early-stage entrepreneurs with filing direct taxes, indirect taxes, state compliances and others

Source

The Indian Express , 17 January 2020