Startups hope new govt will drive growth agenda, ease regulatory burden

With BJP set to return to power, startups and entrepreneurs Thursday hoped that the new government will continue to drive growth agenda for new businesses, taking further steps to ease regulatory burden and make capital more accessible to them.

Startups said the new government should accelerate the momentum on tech innovation, and focus on training and skilling initiatives for entrepreneurs - all of which will cement India's position as a hotbed for startups.

"The new government must put in place measures such as training hubs for entrepreneurs across India to ease flow of capital, regulatory compliance and more. Further, these hubs must act as one-stop knowledge, research and development centres so that startups can focus more on innovation and less on processes," said Bhavin Turakhia, CEO, Zeta and Flock.

The industry also urged the new government to make early stage and growth capital more easily accessible for startups, relax regulatory compliance procedures, and develop incubation centres - to aid employment generation and spur growth.

Satyam Kumar, CEO and Co-Founder, LoanTap Financial Technologies said that the compliances for startups, while necessary, tend to be "onerous and costly" at times.

"Expectation from Government is to make process simpler to comply with - a single clearance window - which ensures end-to-end solution or procedure to be followed by a start-up that enables pro-active compliance as well as helps to avoid unnecessary costs," he explained.

Slonkit Founder, Javed Tapia said that enabling measures will help India leverage its entrepreneurial potential and "become a hotbed of unicorn start-ups across different sectors".

Razorpay CEO and co-founder, Harshil Mathur noted that the government in the past maintained a strong focus on Digital India and FinTech, and hoped that the growth agenda will continue.

"A lot of programs were initiated towards digitisation of the country and increasing access to fintech last year - this must progress with a fresh commitment to democratise digital payments...one reform that I am expecting is the tax and GST benefit for businesses opting for digital transactions," he said.

Sampad Swain, Instamojo CEO, said he was hopeful that the government would introduce measures to streamline taxes and ease regulatory policies for small and medium businesses in the country to promote ease of doing business.

"Also, we believe that the government should address the major challenges faced by MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises), primarily the absence of adequate financial options and skilled labour which is a significant deterrent to the progress of the sector," Swain said.

Ankur Pahwa, Partner and National Leader, e-commerce and consumer internet, EY India, said that while measures have been taken to provide relaxation from Angel Tax, there are still some "unfulfilled expectations linked to its simplification" in the long term.

"More attention is needed to protect entrepreneurs; at the same time enable promoters and investors to raise capital through differential voting rights. While the government has made considerable and commendable headway in ease of doing business, further steps linked to easing of norms will fuel the start-up ecosystem," he added.

Over the last few months, many start-ups had received notices under Section 56 of Income Tax Act to pay taxes on angel funds received by them.