Startup India: Entrepreneurs seek 1-3-year tax holiday

Government should provide 1-3 years of tax and compliance holiday for startups under its ambitious ‘Start Up India’ initiative, young entrepreneurs said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the programme on January 16 to benefit technology-centric startups in sectors like healthcare, education and others.

“We think a 1-3 year tax and compliance holiday should be considered for startups. A single window clearance must be provided for setting up a company. Shutting down a company should also be simple,” ClearTax Founder and CEO Archit Gupta told PTI.

Founder and CEO of healthcare app service Medikoe, Sreevalsam Menon, said the initiative makes start-up ecosystem validated by the government, and thus will propel greater innovation and technology adoption going forward. “Focus should be more on rural job creation, agriculture sector, health-care business and businesses involved in doing socio-economic activities,” he said.

Ride-sharing start-up 360Ride is of the view that the initiatives will help all sectors involving government regulation. “Any sector wherein lot of government regulation is involved, will benefit. For example, cab industry, ride sharing industry, travel industry, logistics and food industry. Once the rules are in place it will help start-ups solve problems in a better way, which will eventually help their items/services to produce best results,” CEO and co-founder of 360Ride Lokesh Bevara said.

Rajeev Pathak of Funtoot, a digital tutor platform for Maths and Science powered by artificial intelligence, said the trend right now is to build around technology-centered companies. “We foresee the benefit reaching technology-centered companies initially. The focus right now is on them, the aura is built around them…all the businesses that are in nascent stage that require intensive hand holding, and that are in need of guidance, be it related to technology, or operational knowhow, should benefit from such initiatives,” he added.

These young entrepreneurs said India is slowly moving towards a knowledge-based economy and this will provide strength to such sectors. According to them, these initiatives can revolutionise the health-care system, farming methodologies, and the education environment. At the same time, focussing on startups will enrich local ecosystem and aid tier-II and III cities as well as rural areas in reaching self-sustaining capacity, they added.