The upcoming Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime is expected to remove hurdles in inter-State tax matters as it heralds a uniform structure across the country. “It will open up a single market and help businesses scale up their operations,” Devendra Surana, managing director of Bhagyanagar India Limited, said.
Addressing a conference on Budget Insights-2017 here on Saturday, he hoped that the new tax regime would result in reduction of transaction costs and make businesses more efficient.
The conference was organised by The Hindu Business Line in association with ICBM School of Business Excellence on the school’s premises at Attapur.
Dwelling on the broad contours of the Union Budget for 2017-18, he said the Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley, has done well by reducing the revenue deficit and making allocations for infrastructure and rural development. He said the manufacturing sector did not get its due. “The sector offers immense opportunities for business and management graduates,” he said.
Mr. Devendra, who is also the FICCI-Telangana Chairperson, said the key to creating a successful business entity was “to dream like a poet and act like a true merchant that brings out the last penny.”
Murali Bukkapatnam, serial entrepreneur and chairman of Volksy Technologies, felt that the Budget should have done something to encourage start-ups by incentivising them to hire good talent. He felt that the government should have come out with a better stimulus package to the economy as the Budget was coming after the demonetisation process.
He said plain ideas didn’t mean anything as long as they were not put into implementation. Citing the examples of Uber, he said entrepreneurs had to work very hard on the products and services so that they could create strong entry barriers for other players who attempted to follow.
Mamata Vegunta, director (HR) of Invesco, Hyderabad, said India was at the cusp of reaping benefits from the demographic dividend as people with productive age group was going to grow in the next 30 years, while that of the developed countries had stopped.
“Walls are being built (around nations) and walls are getting stronger. You need to look for opportunities. The Budget seeks to address this aspect,” she said.
