Union Budget Expectations 2017-18

Looking at the current scenario, the budget of 2017-18 is one of the most awaited announcements. The year 2016 saw a lot happening in terms of announcements and reformative decisions that have changed the way India works. The Union Budget for 2017-18 will be presented in Parliament in the first quarter of 2017 on 1st Feb. The Indian economy was growing at a rapid pace, registering GDP growth of around 7.6% before demonetisation, the business organisations across the Industry are now expecting big from the budget day. With an expectation of industry-friendly measures, especially with a focus on the startups, lets have a quick look on what the industry expects from Budget 2017-18: 

Shubham Jain, Managing Director, JP Infra Mumbai shares, “In this budget, we expect Government to continue with positive policy announcements to improve the business environment and give a strong push to growth. This year the growth prospects look better than the last year for all sectors and as a Mumbai based developer, we expect a lot in term of attention and revenue for the Real estate sector. The long pending demand to announce real estate sector as an industry is foremost concern. The deduction for interest on housing loans needs to increase from the current limit. Removal of numerous taxes can encourage the real estate sector on large scale.”

Sahil Kapoor, Executive Director of RE/MAX India says, “Post demonetization the expectations are very high from the budget 2017-18 for Real Estate industry. As the Union Budget is around the corner, the Government should reduce the Interest rates as it will benefit the home buyer by lowering their EMIs and will eventually revive the demand of the real estate market. In the year 2016-17 budget included some key announcements, which was to lower the housing cost and affordable for the individual. In 2017 the government has enforced multiple reforms for the Real Estate Sector. The year will see the industry get into a 360 degree makeover with the brokers and developers becoming more professional and working ethically.  With the implementation of RERA - the industry will be customer centric and hence will improve the overall image of the sector. Hope that the real estate industry will benefit from the initiatives taken by the Government".

Anand Choksi, Managing Director, The Real Estate Connect says, "After demonetization people's expectations from the Modi government has gone even higher when it comes to budget goodies. After November 8th, too many industries have suffered sales drop and job losses including real estate. It's need of the hour to give boost to these industries so that they can get out of this unexpected turbulence. Over and above, a middle class citizens of the country who have stood in the bank queues are expecting ‘achhe din’ sooner than later. I hope the government lives uptown the expectations.”

Umang Tewari, Founder, Big Fish Ventures says, “More funds for tourism can be allotted. Taking into account the government's hints that the entire value of the demonetised notes will not find their way back as cash into the economy, the next budget is also expected to promote cashless transactions.”

Tarun Gulati, Co-Founder, DJUBO says, “We are hoping to see a relaxation in service tax and luxury taxes because travel has been hit due to a demonetisation so there should be steps to reduce the burden on the wallets of travelers and also hoping to see cheaper financing available to hospitality businesses because new room supply is slowing down because of liquidity crunch. The government is announcing interest rate sops for housing, but not enough for hotels. Tourism employs a huge percentage of India's population, both direct and indirect employment. Also local and tier 2 and tier 3 towns across India depend on tourism so this sector needs a major push specially post demonetisation.”

Mr. Hamid Farooqui, CEO, SoGoSurvey shares, "Relatively speaking the quality of life in Indian cities is not on par with developed countries. In my opinion the biggest cause for this is the very high concentration of population in cities. Again, this is due to lack of enough cities in India. We need to combine accelerated development of smart cities and Startup India program announced by PM Modi. Budget 2017 should allocate major resources towards the development of these cities with private public partnership. Also, provide great incentives to startups to locate in these cities. Provide affordable housing, healthcare, schools, institute like IIM, IIT and other facilities and infrastructure of international standards. Startups will attract highly skilled people in these cities from everywhere. India as a whole would progress and quality of life of Indians would improve. This is a long term strategy and our next generation will thank us for this.  He adds, “I hope to see some kind of special incentive for Information Technology professionals in this budget. More importance of educating teenagers to get India more develop.  My argument is that we want to encourage more and more students to get into IT so that our leadership position in Global IT business only goes up. Next Google or WhatsApp or Tesla Motors should come out of India. The budget needs to help that. I propose a higher income tax exception for IT professionals.  I know that PM Modi has announced a lot of incentives for startups. In the budget, I would like to see one incentive to be practically implemented immediately for startups GST exemption. If the company has already been in operation for less than 3 years, then 3 year exemption starting 2017.”