From Bhavish Aggarwal to Ashneer Grover: Start-up Founders Share Their Views on the Budget

The recently concluded Union Budget 2024 comes as a huge relief to the start-up and small business ecosystem in the country. The finance minister introduced a slew of measures aimed at improving the growth trajectory of the sector including the abolition of angel tax, changes in tax rates for e-commerce players and a VC fund of 1000 crore for start-ups in space economy.

This was seen as a welcome move by many as a damage control for companies which had faced the funding winter over the last few years.

Start-ups CEOs have taken to X to express their opinions on the budget.

Bhavish Aggarwal, CEO of Ola, lauded the Union Budget’s initiative with respect to Job creation, critical minerals and Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI).

“The focus on developing DPI applications in agriculture and other areas lay the data foundation for making India the AI hub  of the world. The Critical Mineral Mission will be a game changer for India’s energy transition,” he wrote on X.

He further wrote that it was “great to see emphasis on women’s employment” which sets a strong foundation for India’s tech-driven future.

Likewise, Nithin Kamath, co-founder of Zerodha, took to X to express his opinion on Securities Transaction Tax (STT) and Capital Gains Tax.

“We collected about Rs 1500 crores of STT last year, @zerodhaonline. If the volumes don't drop, this will increase to about Rs 2500 crores at the new rates,” he wrote after the Union budget increased STT to 0.1% from 0.062% and 0.0125% to 0.02% for options and futures respectively.

The proposed changes would be from October 1st.

He also stated that the Long-term Capital gains tax and short-term capital gains tax will come in effect from the very day of the budget.

If the idea was to cool down the activity in the markets, this might just do the trick, he ended 

On the contrary, Ashneer Grover, former co-founder and managing director of fintech BharatPe lablled the Budget as “Boring, lifeless and meaningless.”

Instead of delivering this budget, they could’ve just said - “Iss baar man sa nahi kar raha - agli baar dekh lenge agar kuchh karna hai toh," he wrote on X.

“Actually watching yet another Ambani wedding function over this - would’ve been more more value and better use of time,” he ended his tweet.