With the onset of the fiscal year 2023-24, industries are awaiting the announcement of the Union Budget. And the beauty and wellness industry is no exception to it. Priyanka Parshurami caught up with a few experts from the industry to know their expectations from the Union Budget 2023.
As per market reports, India ranked fourth in revenue generation from the beauty and personal care market in 2021. The industry is expected to reach USD 33.33 billion by 2027 at a CAGR of 6.32 per cent. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is set to announce the Union Budget 2023. The beauty and wellness industry is keen to know the benefits and perks coming their way through the budget.
Here are the expectations about the budget from a few key players in the Indian beauty and wellness industry:
Vikram Bhatt, Founder, Enrich Salon:
The government has made few encouraging moves in the last two years. It shows the government is now focused on making industries like ours grow and this makes us very hopeful.
Things like redefining the definition of micro, small and medium enterprises. And encompassing both the very small enterprises and also taking into the ambit the enterprises at the higher end. It is a very welcome development. As we know that many have benefited from the bridge loans and moratorium options that were made available. Also the policy of not differentiating between manufacturing and service enterprises, and excluding exports from the turnover definitions has helped.
We will be happy to see a further widening of the range in the definition of medium industries. As there will be a segment of enterprises that have crossed the 250 Cr turnover band. But are yet far away from being big or large industries.
The future growth and scaling up of our industry is fundamentally dependent on availability of skilled manpower. And GST on the education provided in our academics. Both just drags our effort down as they increase the cost of the courses. We expect that all beauty courses and institutes get exemption similar to government institutes. As this will provide serious acceleration to the capacity building of trained resources for the industry.
Coming to our salons and stores – we need simplification. And 100 per cent input credit for capex items. As ours is a capital-heavy business – this will invariably help other industries as well.
Finally, further simplifying the rates, the process of compliance and fixing the loopholes. And reducing slabs and differences between industries. Which is an ongoing process – must happen with greater momentum.
Dr. Rekha Chaudhari, Global Wellness Ambassador of India, Founder – World Digital Detox Day Foundation, MD – Online Wellness:
Significant shifts are taking place in the wellness beauty and wellness industry in India. Most notably in the wellness and product sectors. As the country is seeing the emergence of a large number of new enterprises in this space. New strategies are introduced into the market for beauty and wellness products. Indian producers and third-party manufacturers in particular are getting more popular as a result of this trend. Methods for promoting wellness and maintaining health that are founded on artificial intelligence are currently being developed. On the product retailing side, technology is being employed in aggressive ways. Which is helping the product retailing area assist in a good growth trajectory. The most notable aspect of this is the aggressive use of technology.
Some encouraging moves have been made in the last two years that show that the government is now focused on making industries grow. Unfortunately the same focus is not given towards the beauty and wellness industry. Despite having tremendous potential in the wellness industry as well as wellness thorium. But unfortunately on the government side, there is a significant gap. Which can also be seen in the area due to lack of connection by the government with industry.
We need all of our processes to be streamlined for import. And we need to have complete import support in order to sustainably develop the Indian economy. Which is strenuously driven by our industry. This is necessary because our industry relies heavily on international brands.
It is almost probable that it will be to the benefit of our various sectors of the economy. I.e personnel skill educational support, products and services GST supports, and imports goods on the clean slate support are supported.
It is really essential not to be oblivious to the fact that the field of beauty and wellness is one of the numerous different areas that offer high-paying jobs. Regardless of the educational background they possess. As a result, the government needs to maintain a very rigorous focus on this particular aspect of the situation.
Uday Takke, Founder Director, Uday Takke’s Hair & Skin Institution Pvt. Ltd.:
During or even later the pandemic, there was least concern shown by the government. As an industry’s collective effort, we made it happen. The salon and wellness sector immediately measured the situation. And made necessary precautionary rules, regulations and followed them religiously just like the healthcare sector.
So as an effect, we became more alert towards health and safety. But we are still considered vulnerable industries to pandemic. In the forthcoming budget, we expect:
1. Declare salon sector in essentials services.
2. Few grants (many of us are registered under MSME/ Adhar Udyam) during such situations.
3. Some benefits in GST as small stakeholders are killed by it during pandemic. (Expenditure has increased because of disposables hygiene maintenance).
