With the presentation of this year's Union Budget slated for Thursday, consumer durable majors are looking forward with hope to government initiatives such as 'Make in India' to improve India's Ease of Doing Business.
In addition to this, the segment is also looking forward to a much-needed reduction in corporate tax.
Here are some of the key expectations of this sector:
SYSKA Group
"Make-in-India initiative of the Government would be very helpful in reducing the fiscal deficit and generating employment in India. Further, the emphasis of the government to move towards LED under the energy conservation policy promises immense savings of electricity. Also, the recent move to increase import duty on LEDs would support energy conservation under 'Make-in-India' to a great extent", said Rajesh Uttamchandani, Director, SYSKA Group.
Hero Cycles
"There is need to promote Research & Development (R&D) in electric vehicles to make them more efficient and have higher throughput. I'm looking forward that the government will announce incentives for private companies to invest more in R&D in these fields in Budget 2018. Higher efficiency and power in these vehicles will make it easy for them to become popular. I expect the government will move even forward in its commitment on 'Ease Of Doing Business' and bring in even more measures for promoting business and industry and revisit Corporate Tax rates in the country which are among the highest in the world," said Pankaj Munjal, CMD, Hero Cycles.
Akai India
"The consumer durable market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 13 per cent from FY05 to FY20 which reflects the huge potential of this sector which is yet to be unleashed. Currently the government has placed refrigerators, washing machines and other electronics of daily use in the 28 percent slab rate under the goods and services tax. We expect the 2018 budget to east the slab rate and place the appliances under the 18 percent slab. After all, the consumer durables electronics and appliances industry is no more a luxury but a necessity for consumers at large," said Anurag Sharma Director of Akai India.
Kairali Ayurvedic Group
"With the 2018 Budget we at Kairali would like the support of the Government to propagate Ayurveda across the globe and similar to yoga. Market the same as a proprietary science of India. This will create an added level of authenticity and mark India as the main place to get treatments done via this alternative medicine. This will enhance medical tourist visiting India. We also would like the Government to allocate more funds to improve infrastructure to various destinations across India with a focus on tourism," said Abhilash K Ramesh, Executive Director, Kairali Ayurvedic Group.
Voylla Fashions Pvt. Ltd.
One of the biggest roadblocks to growth for e-commerce companies has been the cash on delivery (COD) format. It has been established that indirect cost of COD services are much higher than direct costs due to large share of COD transactions (as high as 60 percent by some estimates). This is hurting small and medium companies especially. Incentivising digital payments may help drive digital transactions. The government could also consider granting industry status to the retail sector, so that it can attract more investments and be able to deal with volatile market situations, with an eye on profitability and sustainability," said Prashant Sharma- CFO, Voylla Fashions Pvt. Ltd.
Cox & Kings Ltd.
"The tourism industry is one of the key drivers in terms of employment generation and inclusive growth. According to the tourism ministry, the tourism sector contributes 6.88 percent to the country's total GDP, besides 12.36 percent of the total employment in terms of jobs and it is imperative that the government takes important steps to nurture this industry. In order to boost domestic and inbound tourism, the government should reduce the Goods and Services Tax (GST), which is 18 percent for hotel room rates in the Rs 2,500-7,500 category. This is very high compared to our competing destinations and hence it's important to rationalise this rate to stay competitive," said Peter Kerkar, Group CEO, Cox & Kings Ltd.
Bigbasket
"The implementation of GST has helped us in effectively selling unique products of one state at same price across the nation. For most of the products, prices have come down. If the rates are lowered further, it would be great. The customers will benefit more. But beyond GST, I am not expecting any major reforms in this year's budget from the business side. I feel that the budget should focus on the following two sectors: skill development and job creation; and infrastructure. Though there has been a lot of work going on in these sectors, a further fillip to these in the upcoming budget would be a positive step," said Hari Menon, Co-Founder and CEO, bigbasket.
Dwarikesh Sugar Industries Ltd
"It is suggested that planned reduction in corporate tax rates may be accompanied with at least 1 percent rate cut each year may also be extended for all domestic companies effective from FY 2018-19 to boost the confidence among taxpaying industry. It would be appropriate to remove the levy of surcharge and education cess on corporate and non-corporate taxpayers. Also, consistent with the reduction of rates of tax, the rate of DDT may also be reduced suitably so as to be competitive in terms of the comprehensive tax burden. Similarly, the income tax rates for unincorporated bodies i.e. Firm, Limited Liability Partnership (LLPs), should also be reduced to 25 from the current 30 percent," said B. J. Maheshwari, Wholetime director and CS cum CCO, Dwarikesh Sugar Industries Ltd.
On a related note, the Budget will be presented on Thursday by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
This will be the last full-fledged budget of the Narendra Modi-led government and the first post the rollout of the GST.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
