Economic Survey 2023 suggests tax simplification to accelerate ‘reverse flipping’ of Indian startups

Ahead of the Union Budget 2023-24, the Economic Survey on Tuesday laid down several recommendations for the startup ecosystem, including the issue of new-age companies moving their domicile back to India.

ETtech looks at some of the key highlights from the Survey for the tech and startup ecosystem

For startups:


■ DPIIT-recognised startups created 2.69 lakh jobs in 2022, compared to 1.98 lakh in 2021.
■ About 48% of the startups are from Tier-II & III cities.
■ Several inherent challenges faced by startups such as lack of easy access to supportive infrastructure, wading through regulatory environment and tax structures, “ever-elusive funding, revenue generation struggles”.

Facilitating startups to flip back to India:

With easy access to capital, changes in rules regarding round tripping, and the growing maturity of India’s capital markets, startups operating in India are exploring “reverse flipping”, or shifting domicile from abroad back to India.

Recently, digital payments major PhonePe said its existing shareholders in Flipkart Singapore and PhonePe Singapore, led by Walmart, purchased shares directly in PhonePe India bringing to a close a three-year old process that began in 2019 to make PhonePe an India-domiciled company.

To accelerate “reverse flipping”, certain measures have been suggested:

■ Simplifying the process for grant of “Inter-Ministerial Board (IMB) certification” for startups
■ Further simplification of taxation of Employee Stock Options (ESOPs)
■ Simplifying multiple layers of tax and uncertainty due to tax litigation
■ Simplifying procedures for capital flows: Many countries, such as the US and Singapore, have easier corporate laws, with lesser restrictions on the inflow and outflow of capital and treatment of hybrid securities
■ Facilitating improved collaboration and partnerships with established private entities to develop best practices and state-of-the-art startup mentorship platforms
■ Exploring the incubation and funding landscape for startups in emerging fields like social innovation and impact investment

Also read | ETtech Explainer: why PhonePe investors paid Rs 8,000 crore to shift base to India?

Startups face several challenges while moving domicile to India as local laws pose several challenges, and PhonePe was no exception, said cofounder and chief executive Sameer Nigam, last week. “Our investors paid almost Rs 8,000 crore in taxes just to allow us to come back to India,” Nigam said.