'Cut taxes, slow down govt recruitments': Wisdom Hatch founder's 6 power moves for Budget 2025

Akshat Shrivastava, founder of Wisdom Hatch, has proposed six actionable strategies for the upcoming Budget 2025. With a focus on boosting supply, reducing inefficiency, and encouraging growth, his recommendations aim to address some of the pressing challenges in the country’s economic landscape.  

The first move, according to Shrivastava, is addressing supply-side constraints. “India already has massive demand. In fact, the demand is so high that the entire world wants to sell to India. Our issue is that we can’t provide enough ‘supply’ domestically to fulfil this demand.” He sees tourism as a starting point, suggesting measures such as standardizing AirBnBs, capping taxi and airfare rates, and offering long-term visas for foreign visitors. “DTCM, Dubai, has already done this,” he said, highlighting it as a replicable model.  

The second priority is to increase people’s spending power by reducing personal income taxes. Shrivastava pointed out that India has one of the highest personal tax rates globally. “This only makes sense if the rise in salary is compensating for real inflation. But, since this is not happening post-COVID, we need a personal income tax cut.” With 60% of India’s economy reliant on domestic consumption, leaving more money in people’s hands would help revive growth.  

Shrivastava’s third suggestion is cutting government expenditure, which he sees as disproportionately skewed towards non-productive activities. “Our revenue expenditure, such as salaries, is four times our capital expenditure. Our governments are way too bloated.” He proposed reducing budgets by at least 50% and slowing down new recruitments in government jobs. “Argentina did this recently, and it is now turning its economy around,” he noted.  

Shrivastava also suggested reducing India’s focus on agriculture. “Let’s be honest. We have been focusing on agriculture since independence, and it has not generated the type of results we had expected.” He pointed out that India’s agricultural output is among the lowest globally and called for a shift to industries that generate more value. While he acknowledged agriculture’s importance, he said it should be scaled and budget reallocations should begin to up-skill workers for other sectors.  

Support for small businesses is Shrivastava’s fifth recommendation. He proposed linking tax breaks to job creation, with incentives tied to the number of employees hired. “Most small businesses require credit or loans to grow. The more they hire, the more loans they should get.” Shrivastava also suggested simplifying compliance processes, noting how Singapore gives businesses time to file taxes and offers instalment payments. “In India, advance tax for small businesses is a nightmare,” he said, advocating for more supportive measures.  

Lastly, Shrivastava called for a reduction or elimination of capital gains tax. “Countries like UAE and Singapore have zero capital gains taxes. The reason is simple: this is your ‘risk’ capital. You have already paid taxes to invest. You should not have to pay taxes again on that capital in case you are investing and growing it.” He believes this could position India as an attractive destination for wealth creation.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget 2025.