Budget 2022 Expectations quote on behalf of Esri India - a market leader in GIS (Geographic Information Systems) technologies and part of Esri Inc which has 49 offices worldwide
Agendra Kumar, Managing Director, Esri India, said, “The new Geospatial Data guidelines announced by the government was the first major policy change in decades and in order to derive full benefits from these guidelines, creating fresh data sets is very important. This can be done by government agencies under public-private partnerships as well as through the private sector, which can play a crucial role in the implementation of various government programs. And most importantly, focused investments through government schemes, is the need of the hour; hence, the upcoming budget should allocate funds for a period of 5 years for consumption by national mapping organizations like Survey of India and Geological Survey of India for updating existing data sets and creating new data sets, which will be an ongoing activity. The industry is also looking for a higher allocation of funds for the use of geospatial technologies in programs like Gati Shakti, Har Ghar Jal, and various other programs under the ministries of Jal Shakti, MoRTH, MoHUA. Geospatial data and technologies can help in more efficient execution, thus, it is important to expand the reach of GIS through sufficient funding support.”
Budget Expectations regarding TDS
Mr. Gunish Jain, CEO, BlueKaktus shared his Pre-Budget wishes from the Union Finance Minister by pointing out:
“TDS has been a point of concern across the industry. Currently, a TDS of 10% assumes profitability of 40% which is generally not the case for corporations. With a major chunk of capital being held back in the form of TDS, maintaining big cash flow becomes a challenge. Small and Mid-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) find it challenging to secure loans as most of their money is blocked by the government in the form of TDS. In my experience, the TDS needs to be trimmed down to 7.5% for all whereas for SMEs it should be further reduced to 2.5%.”
“In addition to TDS, the government should also revise the GST on software services to 12%. This will improve the adoption of technology in the industry and urge more companies to move along with the times and digitize.” He further adds, “Amongst exporters too, the cash flow issue persists when it comes to GST refund. The current process of collecting and then refunding leads to massive cash flow issues in the industry. I believe that the government should revise the existing GST refund timeline and devise a mechanism to automatically refund the money within 45 days of a filed request. Moreover, fixing a date on the refunds can help companies align their business objectives accordingly.”
Fintech Related Budget Wishes
Representing a fintech startup, Mr. Mitesh L Thakker, Founder & CEO, MissCallPay commented:
"UPI as a revolution from India, has reached only 20 Crore users of 118 Crore mobile subscribers in India, Government should incentivize new users, primarily the Low Middle Income and Jan Dhan Account holders who on-board on UPI for the First time, also provide incentives to Fintech's into Feature Phone, Voice & USSD based payments space to help absorb operational cost of technology so that UPI revolution reach into nook and corners of Bharat."
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