Union Budget 2015: Online start ups, ecommerce wishlist

The Digital India idea has a slew of start-up and established companies in the technology and e-commerce space excited.

They all believe Budget 2015 will be the start of a new era of higher growth. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had invited CEOs of Indian software and hardware companies for a meeting along with various e-commerce companies and prominent startups for pre Budget consultations in January.

Online startups iTiffin.in , iSpyprice.com , Youshine.in and others have high hopes from the upcoming Budget.  Tapan Kumar Das, CEO and Co- Founder of  iTiffin.in,(Intelligent Tiffin) an online and offline healthy meal providing company , says “I have huge expectations from the budget of 2015.

According to me, ‘Nutrition services and Health food’, can be brought under the gamut of Health services, thus qualifying those services for Service Tax. The cost of healthcare in the country should be reduced in order to regulate the increasing number of lifestyle disorder cases in India.

Also, I wish Food technology is made free of import duty. Income tax benefits should be allocated to the Nutrition and Health Food sector and in order to recruit people from the skill development academy while Nutrition and Diet Plan services should be brought under Mediclaim policy of General Insurance.

Suresh Sharma, Founder & Director , iSpyPrice.com, a leading price comarison website says ;“I have great expectations from the budget of 2015. According to me, if GST i.e. the Goods and Services Tax is implemented in the budget for this year; it will solve various taxation issues. Until then, the government should relax the tax Inspector Raj.

Besides this, I feel that if the service tax on online advertisements is abolished, it will motivated internet-based publishing companies to create more valuable content and application for websites. The Government should give proper clarifications on service tax levied on advertising income that is earned by Indian publishers in foreign currency. Apart from this, MAT i.e. Minimum Alternate Tax should be abrogated from the e-commerce landscape.”

India is on route to becoming the world’s fastest growing e-commerce market, if current projections are anything to go by.Talking about E-commerce , Online travel accounts for nearly 71% of e-commerce business in India. Online Travel platform namely. Via.com, Makemytrip, Yatra.com etc have high expectations from the Government.

Mr. Swaminathan Vedaranyam Chief Executive Officer, VIA.com says;”As far as the travel industry is concerned, I think there is an urgent need for well-defined policies and clear commitments to ensure that all cultural heritage points are given more attention with improved infrastructural facilities. There is a recent spurt in domestic travel as well as a higher influx of foreign tourists in India and with dedicated upkeep of the tourist hotspots, we can ensure higher growth for the travel industry.

Additionally, I wish that there is an allocation towards revitalising all unused airports in tier II and III cities as these geographies hold immense potential today. There should also be a rationalisation of air travel taxes for competitive pricing to boost travel and tourism.”