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While the team of our Finance Minister Mr. Arun Jaitley is working days and nights and the Budget document preparations have almost entered into slog overs phase. The demands from industry stakeholders are pouring in in great numbers. SMEStreet have tried to present it to our readers in slightly categorized manner. Here are some excerpts from noted industry people. Compiled by Faiz Askari.
Role of NGO Spent
Ms. Sampa Banerjee, Executive Director of WASME and Secretary, SAVE Org Suggested:
“The role of Non-Government Organizations in the development of India cannot be ignored and surely play a significant role in transforming the economy as well. While we request our Finance Minister to reduce the corporate tax rate at the same time NGO sector should be excluded from GST implications while implementing various promotional schemes and developmental work. In terms of motivating social development work, Mr. Jaitely must restore the tax exemption provisions for NGOs and Waiver of GST should be there for all social work.
Ensuring Digital Security
Dinesh O'Bareja, Global Digital Security Expert suggested:
MSMEs should be directed to have cybersecurity and the government should provide an incentive for any organization which gets certified. Maybe they can subsidies the cost of certification or give a grant in aid.
MSME Ministry can also create a maturity benchmarking system which can be used by organizations to benchmark themselves on a common platform. This can be used by independent consultants as a report submitted to the Ministry and any MSME organization can be given some benefits for their improvements.
- Ministry can provide guidelines
- Helpdesk for anyone who gets hit by ransomware or attack
- Subsidy for certification costs (I understand there is a subsidy for ISO9001)
- MSMS who are continuously improving their security maturity can qualify for discount on interest rate or for easier loan processing
- Ministry should create a benchmarking system which can be used for maturity assessment
- Ministry can provide "model" policies, privacy guidelines etc
- Ministry can start nationwide awareness program of risks and threats to MSME
Another area is manufacturing and assembly of security devices to further the make in India program. At present all manufacturing is happening in China and someone has to take the lead to do this in India.
On Skill Development
Narendra Shyamsukha, Founder Chairman, ICA Edu Skills expressed his suggestions by saying,
“Organisations like ICA Edu Skills which are partnering with various state and Central government in offering skill-building programmes to the country’s potential workforce in diverse sectors are looking forward to Budget 2018 with a lot of hope. We expect the Union Finance Minister to take measures which will facilitate giving market-relevant training to crores of youth in the country. One of the first things the government needs to do in this regard is capped the GST rate for all type of skill training irrespective of whether they government funded/CSR funded/ Self or Employer funded at 5 percent. Alternatively, it should provide a refund mechanism for GST.
Second, the National Skill Development Corporation’s interest rate charged from skill partners should be reduced from the present six percent to two percent. The government needs to make adequate budgetary allocation so that in every taluka at least 10, 000 people can be given some sort of skill training.
The number of Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras and budgetary support for them should also be increased. Finally, we are also looking forward to some income tax concessions to companies providing skill-development services.There should be 150% weight for depreciation or expenditure on skilling.”
On Improvisation of Education
Dr. SD Gupta, Chairman, IIHMR University, Jaipur stated:
"Time is ripe for India to set up world-class universities and institute. The country already has some very famous colleges and universities in science, technology and management disciplines. But the government should come out with a policy to have many more. The scope of Higher education Funding Agency (HEFA) should be expanded to provide long term loans for private players to set up new universities. Institutes and colleges having research capabilities should also be given adequate tax breaks and help in conduct research.”
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