No Angel Tax, Digital Public Infrastructure In Agriculture: Tech Insights From The Budget

 

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 excluded with formal financial services suited to their needs. The government considers Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) to be an important part of integrating excluded communities into the formal financial market. Digital credit is also tagged as a useful tool allowing individuals and firms to access economic opportunities.

Operating on this logic, the Finance Minister made some crucial announcements in her Budget Speech on July 23. She stated that the government planned on using DPI to digitally record the details of farmers and their lands in three years span. The initiative would begin with a digital crop survey for Kharif crops in 400 districts, covering 6 crore farmers and their lands. The government would also issue Jan Samarth-based Kisan Credit Cards in 5 states.

The Digital Crop Survey (DCS) aims to create a database of crops sown across all the farmlands in the country during the different agriculture seasons. The government had announced the introduction of DPI into agriculture in the previous budget, intended to introduce a variety of information services for farmers including market intelligence, crop planning, and access to credit.

Budgetary Allocations That Drew Attention

The Data Protection Board (DPB) was allotted Rs. 2 crore in the budget, reported the Hindustan Times. The Board, which is supposed to direct data fiduciaries to take remedial measures in case of data breaches or complaints, is a crucial part of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act. Of this ₹2 crore, ₹4 lakh was allotted for capital expenditure and ₹ 1.96 crore for revenue expenditure.

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