Budget 2009 – IT Industry Reacts
 |
M.
Narsimha Rao, President, HYSEA (Hyderabad Software Exporters Association)
Commented on the budget and said,"The Union budget
presented on 6th July gives a long term direction to inclusive growth,
Infrastructure development, Education and employment generation of 12
Million jobs a year.
In terms of the Impact on the IT industry, steps like the scrapping of
the FBT, extension of the 10A benefits till 2011, increase in the MAT
credit period to 10 years and increased allocation to education are
welcome steps. However, steps like the increase in MAT from 10 to 15%
are going to have an adverse impact on the Industry in the short run
and this is something we could have avoided.
We believe there are additional steps the Government should consider
in the few months to boost the IT industry. These include the
extension of the 10A benefit for a period of 5 years(the current
extension while it benefits the companies in the short run it doesn’t
not lead to new investments to come into the industry), allowing free
movement of business between STPI Units and SEZs,and specific
incentives to SMEs.
On the personal taxation, while the increases in tax limits are
nominal, the removal of surcharge on income tax will benefit number of
employees in our industry. |
The Industry also welcomes the planned outlay of Rs. 2100
crores to create ‘Educational infrastructure’ including setting up IIT’s
and interest waivers for educating students. These reforms will clearly
bring in a manifold resource increase for employability in the technical
stream. While the Government is taking steps to improve the Quantity &
Quality of Human Resources, we believe some incentives for speedier job
creation would help in the current global economic scenario.
Mr. Ramesh
Lognathan, MD and VP (Products), Progress
Software India commented on the budget and
said, “The growth targets are very
encouraging. I am sure it is partly informed
optimism and partly as a desired goal towards
which the budget has been arrived at.
Infrastructure spending is a good sign. I am
sure some of this will also help boost
software industry- thru the various IT
initiatives likely (by themselves, or to
support other infrastructure programs).
Removing FBT is surely a good thing. This was
an issue for the software industry where there
were a lot of genuine business expenses that
was also seen as a fringe benefit. The
ambiguity now stands removed.
I would have liked to see some incentives or
support to the software sector- particularly
SMEs. Specifically either forward looking IP
and software products related or at least
incentives to encourage the industry to also
look inward (domestic markets). This was
missing in the overall balanced budget. |
Ramesh Lognathan, MD, Progress India |
Reachout's News Bureau
July' 2009
