Budget 2018: A Look At Industry's Wishlist

New Delhi: As the Budget presentation date nears, there's a lot of buzz in the business industry. Earlier this week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had indicated that the upcoming Budget will not be a populist one and had said that it's a myth that the common man expects "freebies and sops" from the government. Despite that comment, the industry has kept their hopes high and is expecting exemptions, tax reduction and incentives. Here's what's on the industry's wishlisht for Union Budget 2018-19 which will be presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitely on February 1.

Digital Healthcare

Satish Kannan, CEO and Co-Founder, DocsApp said, "The government should leverage telecom payments as they have a higher penetration rate in comparison to the internet."

"It would be great to get undivided attention towards digital healthcare as it is the only way to tackle the massive issue of the uneven distribution of doctors in the country," he added.

Normalise GST Rates

Aditya Kedia, Managing Director of Transcon Developers said, "Union Budget 2018-2019 should focus on normalising GST rates on the construction materials, it should also give a major push to the upliftment of locals in the form of slum redevelopments by lessening the burden of fund raising aspects for such projects."

Provide Incentives To Construction Companies

Ajay Agarwal, Finance Director of Entrepreneurs' Organisation said, "Budget 2018 should focus on providing incentives to employment generating industries by way of tax break to further the "Made in India" goal."

Invest In Tourism

Jayanth Sharma, Co-founder and CEO of Toehold said that investments should be made in tourism industry. "Hotels in India have to cater to a variety of demographics at various price points and determining their tax liability must be done with care," he said.

Give Boost To Real Estate

Neetish Sarda, Founder of Smartworks said, "We look forward to a positive impact of Union Budget 2018, especially in the co-working and shared office space segment, within the realty industry."

He also hopes that the government will rationalize the GST rate applicable on property sales.