Agriculture and Food Systems

  The Finance Minister called for the abolition of the angel tax in her budget speech on July 23. The move is intended to promote investment in the Indian startup ecosystem and encourage innovation and employment generation. The “angel tax” requires unlisted startups to pay a tax of about 30 percent on any investment it receives by issuing shares to investors at a price higher than the fair market value (FMV) of those shares. It refers to section 56(2)(viib) of the Income Tax Act, 1961, which was initially intended to prevent tax avoidance and money laundering. However, the tax has been criticised for hindering early-stage investments for startups. The government also scrapped the controversial two percent equalisation levy on overseas e-commerce companies and technology companies. Fillip For DPI in Agriculture The latest economic survey states that the next big challenge for the country is to ensure ‘Digital Financial Inclusion (DFI),’ which involves connecting the financially exc...