Bhavik Vasa, Founder & CEO of GetVantage
“It’s great to see the government broaden its support for the MSME sector by focusing its efforts on deepening its commitment to expand financial access, encourage foreign investment, and streamline processes to catalyse growth.
This is the second year in a row that the government is focused on reviving small businesses post-pandemic and helping them to bounce back and thrive with the fresh capital injection of INR 9000 crore (taking the total corpus to 2 lakh crore) into the credit guarantee scheme. This helps underline the importance of collateral-free credit for growing businesses, which is a great validation for alternative finance solutions like Revenue-Based Funding for new-age SMBs. Also, this is reassuring news for the entire startup, fintech, and alternate finance sector that has been laser-focused on expanding access to more inclusive capital for new economy businesses of India.
In addition, the extension of tax benefits for companies relocating to GIFT City will be another catalyst in boosting the confidence of international investors to bring capital into India in the coming years.
Lastly, it is encouraging that the budget highlights that policy-makers will proactively relook at existing regulations to ensure they are not only updated but forward-looking and regulators will also implement more defined timelines for regulatory license approvals, which will help with ease of doing business.”
Mr. Jiji Mammen. ED & CEO of Sa-Dhan
“The efforts to bring the reached or last mile segment to mainstream and their proposed development is important and will have positive ramifications for the Microfinance sector. Sa-Dhan had also been requesting the Government for some initiatives to expand credit to less-penetrated areas and ultra-poor areas. I feel the initiatives announced by the government through the budget will help achieve this. Microfinance can align with Government initiatives and help support this vulnerable section by extending credit facilities. But I am sure going forward; the Government will take a look at this too.”
Mr Siddhartha Bhaiya, Founder & Fund Manager of Aequitas Investment Consultancy
The budget is broad-based and has addressed our infrastructure needs by increasing outlays by 33% and promoting state infra spending by extending a 50-year interest-free loan for one more year. It has focused on promoting agriculture by giving a generous allocation to “Shri Ann” and the SME space by extending the credit guarantee scheme.”
