Saurabh Shrivastava: Start-ups get a leg-up

Start-ups have been given focus in the Budget. Reduction in corporate tax to 25 per cent for medium and small scale enterprises with annual revenue of less than  Rs 50 crore will help early stage companies. I wanted MAT (Minimum Alternate Tax) to be scrapped for start-ups, but now there is an extension from 10 to 15 years, which is good.
 
The entire thrust towards digitisation and digital payments is good for the start-up sector. This means focus on high-speed broadband in rural areas and local manufacturing of payment devices. The move to relax the ownership norm for founders of start-ups to carry forward losses is welcome, as founders normally dilute shares to get funding from investors. So is the profit- linked deduction for start-ups to three out of seven years and the alignment of capital gain taxes with listed companies.

 
Reduction in the personal income tax rate at the lower level is good but the additional surcharge for high-income earners was a surprise. It doesn’t cover all the things that we wanted but no Budget does. It is a fair Budget.
 
Saurabh Shrivastava, chairman of Indian Angel Network