The Top 8 Union Budget 2015 Expectations. What’s On Your Wish List?

The Top 8 Union Budget 2015 Expectations. What’s On Your Wish List?It’s again that time of the year where little mittens with wish lists are placed on the window sill just hoping to be found by Santa, or in our case our Finance Minister, Mr Arun Jaitley. The last budget by the newly sworn in Modi government created quite a little jiffy and settled down better than the last budget presented by the Congress.

The proposed budget is to be passed in the Parliament on 28^th February. India ranks 142^nd in the “ease of doing business” segment, and that probably is our biggest request to the Finance Minister. Ease of Doing Business in India has to improve, and by a fair margin.

Wish 1: More FDI

This wish has been lingering on for quite some time now. Last year, we did see increase in FDI for number of sectors, but some of them still remain. It would do real good to encourage full FDI in retail sector, though the biggest fear has been that it will crumple the small vendors. But many market experts are of the opinion that it may help small vendors by attracting international funding. It will also help small vendors to supply goods to e-commerce sites.

Wish 2: MAT impact

Though PM Modi started the “Make In India” programme, most manufacturers are not very happy about the Minimum Alternate Tax stationed at 18.5%, when most countries have MAT at just 15%.

Also with tax holidays given to SEZs, MAT still poses a big threat to development. As a whole the manufacturing industry is affected adversely by confusing laws clinging on for many years now.

Wish 3: TAX Simplification (DST & GST)

Today every business house has been disturbed by the complications arising due to taxation. Income Tax and Companies Act- both have been a major concern to all the businesses. The government proposing 10,000 startup warehouse, allotting major VCs is going to be of little use if the tax structure makes it difficult to do business in India. Many reports point out startups migrating to Singapore and US, this can be only stopped if the complications are erased. The government also has been postponing the introduction of DTC (Direct Tax Code) and GST (Goods and Services Tax) for a long time now. Elaborative and simplified taxation must be implemented soon.

Wish 4: E-commerce specific

The tax officials have been giving the e-commerce portals a hard time. Especially the south Indian VAT Authorities have been levying e-commerce giants like Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal heavy fines and penalties for tax evasion. Most of these companies blame the law for the confusing tax scheme.

The e-commerce businesses also wish they are given tax incentives so that some newly established e-commerce businesses can use the tax savings to plough back into the business. The biggies like Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal enjoy a fair deal of profits unlike the newly born e-commerce businesses.

Wish 5: IT Sector

The importance of the Information Technology sector is unquestionable. It has been triggering growth in the economy for three decades. Of late, most of the companies are laying off substantial number of employees like IBM, TCS etc. It’s very unfortunate to see that most of our software industry only functions as “the doers” for “the creators”. The solving of a problem is taught but not how to erase the problem itself. As a remedial measure, it would be ideal for the government to help big IT corporates setup their R&D here and provide grants.

Wish 6: Exemption list

The salaried persons have been enjoying a Basic Exemption limit of Rs. 2,50,000. Many want it move to Rs. 3,00,000 or higher. Though the government increased the deduction section 80 C by Rs. 50,000, many say it has only been a breezer but doesn’t really help much. So yes, something above that should make it better.

Wish 7: Ease the Companies Act of 2013

Talk to any CA practitioners and they’ll enumerate why the forming a company is a tedious and expensive task. And existing corporates have in no way found any relief under the new Companies Act,2013. The penalties for petty negligence are excruciating for newly formed companies. This act was the SATYAM inspired law, wherein every little transaction is looked at with a skeptical view.

Wish 8: Allow private participation in education sector

We do know that the amount that goes in for primary education by the government hardly suffices the children’s needs. So it would be most encouraging to have private participation in the education sector which will help in improvising the existing standard of education.

According to us these were the Top 8 on our wish list, however other sectors also have very high expectations from this budget. Lets see if our FM is able to meet them!

What are your top wish lists this budget season? Let us know.