Union Budget 2019: Here’s What Entrepreneurs Say!

Just a few hours after the Interim Budget was passed, the startup world buzzed with mixed reactions. Here is a snippet of what our industry leaders think of the budget.

“This budget reflects coverage of all segments of the society. It looks populist as expected. However, the three moves, related to middle class salaried people, farmers and unorganized sector workers, looks like well thought and a calculated one. They comprises of approximately 80% of the population. Though the slipping fiscal deficit target could be a bit concern point, overall the budget is good for all sections of the people. I feel that the salaried people are the best beneficiary with 3 facet benefits across tax slab, tax benefit in purchase of second house and increase in untaxed income earned through bank/post deposits.”

Bhavin Patel, Co-Founder & CEO, LenDenClub.

“The proposal to digitize 1 lakh villages over the course of the next 5 years will benefit the Fintech companies to further drive financial inclusion to the Indian masses. The FM’s announcement to provide full tax rebate to individuals with income up to Rs 5 lakhs will benefit over 3 crore middle class families including the employees of many startups. We look forward to the National Artificial Intelligence Portal because now the innovative Fintech segment can tap into new and emerging technologies and use AI to the betterment of the society.”

Ajit Kumar, Founder & CEO, RupeeCircle.

"It is a progressive budget with a clear push towards socio-economic growth of the country with a focus on agriculture, SMEs, and the working class. The budget touched upon almost every strata of the society. We also welcome the government’s proposals that incentivize MSMEs. The budget proposes bringing down the corporate tax for firms that reported turnover up to Rs 250 crore, from 30% to 25%, thereby reducing the tax burden on MSMEs.

There is visible thrust for digital solution and new age technologies as the budget specifically mentioned the envisaging of a National programme on artificial intelligence and Digital India being an integral part of the long term vision."

Akshat Saxena, co-founder, ePayLater

“The Government's push to the unorganized sector is a welcome step for the logistics vertical, which is characterized by a large number of unorganized players; and the pension scheme for the 4.2 crore workers in the numerous industries announced, in a way will help in streamlining the workforce and will address the issue of giving a decent life to them post their working age.

With the scheme of modernizing the villages, and going digital will help in skilling the youths in such villages, making them self-reliant and finding progressive careers for themselves while contributing to the household incomes as well. In most of the villages, women are still not allowed to go out of their homes - Digital villages will help to reach those women and skill them. Even though through various schemes such as PM Mudra Yojana, Government have been trying to educate women and work towards the cause of women empowerment, but still a lot of women have been deprived of it - Digital villages will likely ensure such benefits reach them faster now."

Divya Jain, CEO, and Founder, Safeducate

"The government has been banking on digital technologies such as AI, machine learning, big data and more. Thus, in the interim budget we had expected a significant boost by the government. We are glad to find out the government’s plans of developing a National Artificial Intelligence portal, which will significantly boost research and development measures in the field of Artificial Intelligence."

Atul Rai, CEO and Co-Founder of Staqu

Our Take

Minister Goyal said that 9 AI portal will be made operational in India. However, there is no clarity on data privacy and data protection. The Minister also said that India will lead the world in transport with EV and renewable energy, making India a pollution free nation. Well, talking of the flip side, the timeline is still uncertain, as no concrete initiatives, regulations, and frameworks are in place still.

Well, the times ahead would say how things shape up in the near future.