Bangalore: The Union Budget is the flavor of the moment, with everyone from the roadside vegetable vendor to the Tatas and Birlas talking about it. The yearly announcement by the government which decides the fate of the industry and the customers alike is very speculated, with everyone expecting something or the other out of it. With the announcement impacting the whole nation, how can the entrepreneurs stay behind? Few entrepreneurs share their expectations from the upcoming budget.

More Concessions In The Tax Structure

“It would be great if the government can provide more tax breaks to the ecommerce companies as they are different from the offline companies. Also, it should give tax breaks to the companies which build the internet and broadband infrastructure like Airtel, Vodafone, and the likes,” says Ashish Abrol, Founder BigIndianWedding.

Not getting tax concession hampers the ability of the ecommerce companies to scale up on the brands, their sales, and make them unable to give enough discounts and offers to the customers. The current rate of 12.5 percent is very high for the ecommerce companies and the government should work to make it zero or reduce it substantially to say five percent. This would be a great boost to the ecommerce companies.

“If India wants to be the world leader, it should not look at reducing the tax as a preferential treatment to the ecommerce companies, but as a benefit to the end consumers. In U.S., in the initial ten years there was no VAT on the ecommerce sector, and it was only after that the government started putting a tax slab for them. This helped the ecommerce sector to boom. Also, it took me 18 months to establish my business in India, which would have taken me barely six months in U.S., due to the complicated tax structure. So I feel that the government should implement GST to un-complicate the procedures,” says Abrol.

He also feels that the government should look into setting up an efficient infrastructure for the logistics companies, as without that the movement of goods and the trade between the states and consuming parties is hampered.

Ashish Abrol is the Founder of BigIndianWedding an online wedding planning services portal. The company had reportedly raised less than $5 million in funding from a privately held Indian business family.