Eyeing easy access to funds

Vijay C Roy

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 27

Rolled out by the Centre in 2016, the ‘Start-Up India’ was aimed at encouraging start-ups by providing them tax exemptions and at making India a lucrative destination for such ventures. However, the start-up ecosystem is still evolving and has not yet achieved its full potential due to some stumbling blocks. Fraught with challenges, the start-up community urges the government for an easy regulatory system, friendly policies, and easy access to capital. The Tribune spoke to start-up owners and managers to gauge their expectations from this year’s Budget.

Capital access

The government has been urged to make early stage and growth capital more easily accessible for startups.  “A workable solution, within the guidelines and definition for start-ups, is much desired. Mandating banks to grant loans under the ‘priority sector lending’ for startups to deposit GST until the receipt of payment can ease their capital concerns,” said Sunil Goyal, MD and Fund Manager, YourNest. 

Level-playing field

Entrepreneurs are of the view that the funds allocated for them in the Budget should be easily accessible to the start-ups incubated by the governments. “The government should ensure that startups have a level-playing field with other companies, more particularly listed companies where they can participate and win tenders for government projects,” said Neel Juriasingani, CEO & Co-founder, Datacultr.

Realistic policies

“In the past five years, the government has launched more than 150 schemes and policies for the startups. Further, pushing the youth to look at start-ups as a viable career option, we hope that resources (funds) provided by the government will be easy to access. We expect clarity on angel tax, tax exemptions on ESOPs (employee stock ownership plans), easing of active compliance norms and state-level funding and infrastructure support,” said Kartik Agarwal, CEO, Staunch.

Promote B2B

B2B e-commerce business has great potential and the government has permitted 100 per cent FDI in it whereas there is a restriction in the B2C segment. “To give a fillip to the B2B commerce, the government can offer exemptions in GST for the time being. This will allow more startups to join the industry, taking B2B e-commerce to the next level,” KS Bhatia, Co-Founder & CEO Pumpkart.com and Chairman, PHD Chamber, Punjab StartUp Cell.

Easy compliances 

Filings and compliances are quite cumbersome and we expect the government to make the process frictionless through an entirely online process. It should streamline taxes and make GST and TDS filings on a quarterly basis for start-ups, which are currently reeling under the pressure of working capital crunch due to the monthly filing. Besides, the government should draft a law to penalise parties who do not honour payments within 60 days of invoice raising,” said Anmol Kukreja, Co-Founder & CEO, Skillbox.