Nirmala Sitharaman and the Budget: A lady’s day out

The Government should build on its recent push towards sustainability by prioritising the growth of the Electric Vehicle ecosystem. This can be done by promoting the creation of a strong and well-connected charging infrastructure on a pan-India level, promoting the setting up of EV battery capacity in the country and incentivising the adoption of EVs, especially for public transport buses, fleet operator cars and two- and three-wheelers.

The road connectivity must also be improved between major urban centres and tier-2/3 regions to bolster the growth of the travel and tourism sector.

In order to generate employment, the Budget should consider further incentives for boosting 'Make In India', and look into new mechanisms to prevent whole-sale dumping of goods by many countries into India, specifically in the area of solar energy.

Given the deceleration in economic growth, the FM may be compelled to look at measures both for immediate impact and long-term growth. The Budget will have to play a fine balancing act between managing the deficit and providing a boost to flagging economic growth. Also, India's ease of doing business ranking improved last year from 77th to 63rd. The Government needs to push ahead with sustained regulatory reforms to provide a conducive business environment.

The 2020 Budget allocation for the food industry is going to be critical, mainly due to the removal of the input tax credit on food sold in restaurants and workplaces. This step has negatively impacted the agricultural economy, ultimately having an adverse reaction to the food services industry which is a $10 billion-economy that backs $7 billion of agriculture produces. It has largely resulted in a disorganised industry, creating a lopsided structure of the entire sector as previously there was service tax and GST that claimed to have an input tax credit. The removal of Input Tax Credit and replacing it with flat-tax took away the core promise of GST, that is to eliminate the cash economy and to make sure the business of the companies help meet the expectations of the Government in ensuring transparency in the transactions.

Furthermore, it is worse when it comes to food services provider or organised caterer of any sort. When the customer is billed, he or she can claim ITC on that purchase but the service provider cannot as that is considered as a restaurant. Due to this, while the restaurants are hiking up the prices to compensate for the loss of ITC, food service providers are left high and dry. As a consequence, it reflects negatively towards the motive of helping bring about an organisational approach to agriculture produces and streamline the process. We remain optimistic that the decision of bringing back the input tax credit will be considered under the cognisance and some change is hopeful. It is also important that more focus is given to the agricultural produce so that the area substantially gets highly streamlined. The need to spur private investment and therefore to have a more predictable tax regime which can allow us to kick start our acquisitions in India is mandatory. The industry is looking forward to a revised and much predictable tax regime along with the reintroduction of the input tax credit on food sales to streamline the GST in the sector.

With the increasing demand for online purchasing, more and more businesses are moving to e-store from brick and mortar stores. e-Commerce has also revolutionised the way companies are doing business. The Government should make GST obligations for both offline and online traders same to provide more clarity on policy guidelines pertaining to eCommerce.

Looking at it as a major opportunity, the Government should look to spend higher on infrastructure and rural programs, and focus on tax cuts to boost personal consumption.

The Government needs to do a tight rope walk in the 2020 Union Budget by balancing the burgeoning fiscal deficit and increasing the borrow at one end and stimulating growth at the other. The need to strike a fine balance will be a key agenda in the upcoming Budget. There are expectations of reduction in personal income tax rates to boost consumption and dividend distribution tax, and long-term capital gains tax to improve the sentiment in the capital markets. These measures will increase the disposable income in the hands of the individual, boosting the currently subdued demand and supporting the massive divestment program that is running short the target. Given the Budget constraints, the Government needs to maximise collections and spending efficiency in future.

The Government should bring in more business-friendly policies, and take steps to reduce regulatory compliance, thereby creating a holistic environment for the ease of doing business. Removal of MAT from SEZ and simplification of domestic sales from SEZ will give required boost to the manufacturing industry. Last but not the least, removal of capital gain from equity transaction will facilitate overall market capitalisation of stock market.

Fund availability has to be made for a conducive and supportive financial environment. This is because the lending fintechs are largely the ones that cater to the masses or the people who are not served by the formal financial institutions. The access to liquidity has to be eased for such fintechs. Though there are many funds which are established for the fintechs, the flow of money for the same has its own unique challenges. There has to be rationalisation of MAT tax rate along with the increase in the minimum threshold for tax exemption as many end up paying taxes despite being eligible for the tax holiday.

This year’s Budget is being eagerly awaited by all stakeholders as the need of the hour is to revive consumer demand which in turn will spur economic growth. To tackle this, a reduction in personal income-tax rates through concessions in tax slabs, and an increase in welfare spends will boost spending. With the dip in foreign investment currently impacting businesses, steps towards a healthy economy will improve foreign investor confidence and attract more international investments. To reduce the burden on business owners, the Government should initiate the simplification of various tax-related compliance and faster processing of tax refunds.