Budget 2021 does not have much for startups: Bhaskar Majumdar, Unicorn India Ventures

Nirmala Sitharaman’s Budget has failed to enthuse the startup community. Billed as the most important budget in the history of this country, there were expectations from every sector that the Finance Minister will announce measures that will alleviate their woes.

Bhaskar Majumdar, Managing Partner, Unicorn India Ventures, told Money9 that although he feels the Budget scored on most parameters, it does not have anything substantial for startups.

“The Union Budget 2021 delivered on many parameters like healthcare, infrastructure, education, banking reforms but the distant cousin — startups — was more or less left out of the key announcements. The tax holiday and LTCG exemption are definitive positive initiatives but their impact remains limited to DPIIT recognised startups (tax break exemption). The funding in the startup sectors currently comes from foreign funds, so while LTCG will give boost to domestic money finding its way into the sector, the numbers still won’t match up to the scale where impact can be made.

“However, we can’t ignore the fact that the government has rolled out many positive initiatives outside the Budget like Rs 1,000 crore seed fund announced recently and even setting up OPC will give a boost to new startups getting launched. It will also give them credibility in raising seed or angel money.” he said.

Majumdar said the simplification of zero-return GST and pre-filled tax returns is overall good for the small entrepreneurn while the digitisation of the Census is in the right direction of overall digitising all government processes as this would enable census within months and not years as it took now.