Mr. Sahil Miglani, Co-Founder, Geekster, said, “The Pandemic has changed the way learning happens and also fast-forwarded the adoption of online education by 5-10 years. Delivering quality education to every town and village of the country is now possible, provided we improve the digital infrastructure. We expect the government to revisit the high GST on education-related services and overall higher budget allocation to this sector.”
Mr. Himanshu Tyagi, CEO & Founder of Digikull, said, “In India, any skill development related service must come under the lowest tax slab. The government should revisit the 18% GST on skilling, which is very demotivating for the students who want to gain skill-related education. The government must even provide loans related to education at lower interest rates. Only then will we be able to say that the policies are encouraging education and literacy in India. During the pandemic, the Ed-tech played a vital role in keeping the show running for education institutes. Now they need the Budget to consider a decent allocation to the sector to suffice for long term tax exemption, technology and accessibility.”
Mr. Rachit Agrawal, Co-founder & Director of AdmitKard, said, “This Budget we expect to see the Indian economy moving its focus to building stronger capabilities in the school infrastructure enabling the hybrid model of education that has become essential in the recurring pandemic scenario. Additionally, early education needs to get more tech-enabled, and we expect it to work in favour of the EdTech community. Further, there should be greater emphasis on skills and language training to make Indian youth ready for the global economy and encouraging more Indians to migrate for work or studies.”
Mr. Karanvir Singh, Founder & CEO, Pariksha – Vernacular EdTech Company, said, “In the current times, to build a successful startup, one needs to have a strong team. However, retaining talent is not as easy when running a young business. To attract and retain talent, a lot of startups started offering ESOPs. We really would like the government to consider the tax structure on ESOPS, such that it be taxed only at the time of sales and not at the time of exercising, as the case currently is. Additionally, a centralised Professional Tax system on the lines of GST will further help and increase the ease of business for startups operating in multiple states.”
