By Rameesh Kailasam
Budget 2022-23 can be termed as a tech-focused Budget that emphasises on digitisation and adoption of future and emerging tech. It gives an indication of the government’s leaning towards and dependency on the start-up juggernaut, both in terms of investments and tech-evolution to help India target economic growth. It is a pro-technology Budget that seems to rightly focus on future and emerging tech that India needs to build up on through its emerging start-up power.
The emphasis on drones has continued full steam ever since the encouraging turnaround last year with the new civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia taking full ownership and coming up with a proactive and forward-looking drone regulation regime. The announcement of Drone Shakti now continues to reinforce this emerging industry and encouragement for start-ups to facilitate Drone Shakti through varied applications and for a drone-as-a-service model will push Indian start-ups to innovate, scale and build use cases in and from India.
The setting up of a dedicated fund for agritech start-ups is a welcome move that will bring in a much-needed innovation boost to the agriculture space. Future mobility tech, another area where many Indian start-ups are making headway, also found mention, and the encouragement through setting up of battery stations, a mass-level battery swapping policy and interoperability standards is a step in the right direction to promote mass adoption and bring efficiencies in the EV space.
The announcement around building capacity in animation, visual effects, gaming, and comics (AVGC) is encouraging as India is on its journey to create new-age technology around these, which will trigger start-ups to grow and create products with global consumers. However, it is equally important that the task force work to bring about regulatory clarity in coordination with the states; a few states have unfortunately chosen the banning route,despite multiple positive court rulings.
The move to consider cryptocurrency and NFTs as virtual digital assets gives much-needed direction and regulatory clarity around such an investment class. However, the tax prescribed seems to be on the higher side considering that various limitations like no setting off or carrying forward of losses have been built in. Clarity is also essential on treatment for those who hold such assets as stock in trade or exchanges. Cost of acquisition needs to be worked out in a clearer manner to ensure all related costs to enable the transaction are considered. A high tax rate in any sector may potentially become a deterrent.
The Budget has not addressed long-pending issues faced by the start-up space around onerous TDS clauses like 194O and 206C. Also, new TDS clauses introduced in this year’s Budget through 194R may require clarification.
Overall, it is a technology- and start-up-focused Budget that holds promise and can give a great boost if past issues around taxation are resolved quickly.
The writer is CEO, IndiaTech. Views are personal.
Financial Express is now on Telegram. 
