STRESSING on the twin areas in the Indian budget, presented to the parliament by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Feb. 29, that would directly impact on the lives of the Non- Resident Indians (NRIs), Saudi Indian Business Network (SIBN) set up a lively and incisive interactive session with experts to help break down the budget to a layman. [caption id="attachment_41036" align="alignleft" width="300"] The expert panel from left: Soni. Anandiya. Rahul Goswami,, Raghavendra A, Deputy Consul General M. Shahid Alam, Naveen Kumar and Abdulrehman Merchant. — Courtesy photo[/caption] Indian Consul General B.S. Mubarak, who has been pushing the envelope of bilateral trade between India and Saudi Arabia, saw it as an imperative to bring the latest information and make available to the Indian Diaspora and the Saudi businessmen the facts of the budget. Shahid Alam, deputy consul general & consul Haj, chaired the session at the Indian Consulate premises on Saturday, Mar. 5. Vijay Soni, treasure SIBN, arranged for speakers from India and a learned CA panel from local organizations for the presentations and panel discussion. A fair presence of SIBN members along with S.R.H. Fahimi, consul community welfare, Dr. Nurul Hasan, consul commerce, Dr. Irshad Ahmad, consul press, information and cultural affairs, Anand Kumar, consul consular, were present at the event, which saw professional presentation and vibrant discussion. There were in all four presentations, two by local experts and two from India through Skype. This was followed by a panel discussion headed by Shahid Alam and participants CA Sunil Daddha (ICAI, Bahrain), CA Abdulrehman Merchant (ICAI, Jeddah), Naveen Kumar (HR Consultant, ALJ), Raghavendra A (MD, ALJ), Rahul Goswami (Legal Consultant), Anindya (IIT,IIM). Vijay Soni moderated the session. [caption id="attachment_41037" align="alignright" width="300"] The Skype session with Mrs. Jyotsna Sitling, joint secretary, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, and CA S. C. Lekhwani, a senior practitioner from India in the Q & A part of the event. — Courtesy photo[/caption] The surprise package was the unexpected address by Mrs. Jyotsna Sitling, joint secretary, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, who came online to extend her support to the event. She promised to help skill development and industry support for Indo-Saudi relationship while hailing SIBN efforts, and stating that SIBN could be the bridge to connect the skill gap. Soni set the ball rolling by explaining the Indian taxation system in very simplistic language including international taxation and preferential treatment available to Saudi investors. He also explained the stress of the budget. "Make In India", "Start–up India", "Stand-up India", "Infrastructure", "Krishi Kalyan", "Ease of doing business", "Skill India" and "Swachh Bharat" have clearly been the drivers of the tax and fiscal policy of this budget. Soni highlighted that this budget has sought to empower the masses and strengthen the ‘bottom of the pyramid' through the nine identified pillars and the specific focus on 3Rs — Rural, Rail, and Road. From the perspective of overseas investors and the NRI community, specific measures such as 100 percent FDI in food processing, rationalization of TDS (tax deduction at source) for NRIs without PAN, easing of customs declaration and increase in baggage allowance are key positives. India's economy can be seen as oasis of investment opportunities. CA Sreekanth A.S. then presented budget highlights and key tax reforms such as the benefits offered to Start Up projects which includes: 100% of profit deduction for 3 out of 5 years for eligible projects. Establishing Fund of Funds and funding of such project are being also offered as benefits under the corpus. Income from crude oil storage in India has been made exempt to attract GCC refineries. CA Huzefa supported the session. During the session a video conferencing was organized, wherein CA S. C. Lekhwani, a senior practitioner from India, joined the forum and explained the taxation provision for NRIs and foreign investors. He also highlighted the protection available to overseas investor against currency fluctuation, double tax treaty benefits and capital gain extracts. Another speaker Anurag Mittal from NIESBUD, India, highlighted government policies in a precise way. He explained that the Indian government has taken several initiatives to facilitate investments and doing business in India. He pointed out schemes like Ease of Doing Business in India, promote and implement Self Empowerment through Entrepreneurship, Make In India, Start Up India, Stand Up India, Skill India and Digital India have the strongest backing from the government. He said, "One of the key issues — concerns faced by existing and potential entrepreneurs especially in the SME sector is timely access to funds. To address the issue the government has come up with various schemes Like Prime Minister Employment Generation Program (PMEGP), MUDRA Scheme (Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency Ltd.), Credit Guarantee Fund Trust Scheme. Funding by State Financial Corporations, State Industrial Development Corporations and Grants from Central and State Government Ministry's — are ‘Best Sources of Funds — that are quick, simple to apply, process, sanction and disburse — vis a vis approaching conventional traditional loans from banks. "Unlike banks, there are no lengthy forms to filled, no collaterals required, no balance sheet/profit and loss account/tax returns for 3 years required. "Rates of Interest is comparatively low — repayment terms and conditions improved and highly flexible. Funded amount is subsidized by government. In grants even the amount funded is not to be paid back, thus encouraging innovation especially in sectors like Biotechnology as an example. "A good business idea-viable project, innovative way of doing a process, providing service supplemented by a good business plan-project report and identity documents are the only key requirements so that there is "walk the talk" and ease of doing business is not only heard in speeches but is actually experienced by entrepreneurs." Start up and skill development are economy booster as budgetary allocation are just inviting innovative ideas generators to go to field with all kind of support without worrying for failure, Anurag stressed. In the panel discussion, Naveen Kumar, a human resource expert said: "While the focus and opportunities are in abundance for our youths in the urban India, there is huge untapped potential among our youth in rural India. Work on adopting 10 villages and focusing on developing 100 youths will be a great start." "Affordable housing for ‘aam aadmi' is a must. Tax holidays for small housing development projects are attraction for real estate segment and open to foreign investors. There are huge synergies in using ideal assets from Saudi construction industry for growing infra needs in India. Solar power cost is coming down drastically. It may match up coal generation cost giving a big boost to environment friendly power generation in India as well as Saudi Arabia. Majority of GDP is driven by Small Medium Enterprises in developing countries like India and budget has been focusing on uplifting the domain with various schemes. Key to be seen is policy implementation on ground," said Soni. Rahul Goswami covered the legal aspect succinctly saying "From the legal perspective, the budget saw an increased emphasis on tribunals for resolution of disputes both in the companies law arena as well as for taxation matters. Tribunals are seen as speedy and cost-effective means of resolution of issues in a business matter by domain experts. More areas were included under the automatic approval route for FDI approval further reducing legal processes to promote foreign investment. "This is also in line with the government's increased emphasis on investment protection and promotion of arbitration as a way of settlement of dispute and limiting the interference of courts when arbitration is agreed. This was reiterated by the Chief Justice of India, Justice T. S. Thakur in a recently concluded International Seminar on Arbitration organized by Indian Council of Arbitration in December 2015 at New Delhi. "The recent revision of the model Government of India Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) agreement form also shows the government's strong commitment to streamline the investment process and provide realistic commitment to foreign investors." The inputs on solar panel shared by Anindya, in my opinion was an eye opener for the Solar panel manufacturers and solar plant installer back home in India who can avail the opportunities opened up by the Saudi government while developing alternative sources of energy. In addition to it, the questions posed by Deputy Consul General Shahid Alam helped us understand several issues in one go. Technical support provided by Asim Zeeshan and Omi Notani was a key factor in this event being successful. Mubarak said: "I congratulate you on the grand success of the session on Analysis on Budget 2016. I thank all of you for putting your utmost efforts to make this event a grand success. The use of technology to bring in speakers from India and other GCC countries was a novel idea and this has connected SIBN with international stake holders and made it more relevant." Alam said, "SIBN is actively involved in promotion of relationship between India and Saudi Arabia business fraternity. In this regard, discussion on Indian Budget 2016 was thought provoking and insightful. This interactive session has been highly appreciated and more such sessions on specific sectors such as Startup India, Skills India and so on should be held. The consulate is ever ready to support all such initiatives which promotes bilateral economic and commercial relationship." Anand Kumar said, "Anurag who is from NIESBUD explained very nicely the government's efforts to help people ready to do business in India. Any entrepreneur will find any information he seeks is just a click away. He also spoke emphatically on the available opportunities in India while CA Lekhwani was equally lucid while explaining rules for the NRIs. Kudos to both of them." The event rounded off with the facts that 31% of small cars being produced in India. Food Industry is still in infancy. Organic farming is untapped domain. Infrastructure boom is going to happen in country. There is huge population looking for basic needs, affordable housing, enhancing a agriculture dominant economy, large pool of educated society and all these are challenges as well as opportunities for the business community to add value. Welcome note was delivered by SIBN General Secretary Syed Majeedul Hasan. Asim Zeeshan, SIBN event coordinator for event arrangements, was supported by Amjad Shareef and Bobby Mannat from the consulate.
