IT Inc toasts Pranab Mukherjee's initiatives for the sector

Nasscom President Som Mittal said “the decision to extend fiscal benefits under Section 10A/10B for one year will help the industry mitigate the impact of current economic environment and help India retain its competitiveness.”

The government has also scrapped the Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT), which was mostly affecting the IT and ITeS industry. With the tax gone, employee stock options will now get attractive.
“The focus on IT investment for enhanced governance is encouraging. The move to increase investment in higher education, especially in IITs and NITs, will greatly benefit the industry in the medium and long term,” Infosys CEO Krish Gopalakrishnan observed.

Duty abolished
The government also exempted packaged softwares from excise duty and countervailing duty (CVD), which could make prices of these softwares cheaper and affordable.
 This will help small IT firms in creating efficient and productive infrastructure. Zinnov Management Consulting Engagement Manager Praveen Bhadada said “the exemption of excise duty will reduce piracy in domestic software market and beef up sales. This will be due to exemption of value attributable to the transfer of right to use packaged software from excise duty.”

Wipro Limited Executive Director & CFO Suresh Senapaty noted increase in MAT has been balanced by expanding time-frame for setting-off from 7 years to 10 years which appears fair.

The industry also welcomed government’s decision of starting more institutions of higher learning such as IITs and NITs. “Weighted deduction of 150 per cent on in-house R&D expenditure available to all manufacturing businesses will provide a boost to domestic R&D efforts,”  said Indian Semiconductor Association President Poornima Shenoy.
DH News Service