Yeh Dil Mange More

Shailendra Sahasrabudhe, Country Manager, Aladdin Knowledge Systems, India 
eFiling should be made mandatory on more areas like VAT, Income tax, web trade applications, because this brings in higher efficiency, transparency and protects the interest of individual investor. There should be simplification of customs duty and should have just one customs duty. Today, we have Basic Duty, Educational Duty, Special Duty and so on and so forth. It is stupidity. Just have one duty and lower the overall duties at par with the Asian countries.

explored from the perspective of the entire value chain to avoid any tax blockages, if such benefits are to have an optimum impact. Continuation of the existing tax structure for IT products, including the benign rate of 12-per cent excise duty on PCs, should be seen in this light. As technology is today considered a strategic differentiator for any business, the scope of availing the credit of the CVD/Excise Duty paid on the PC and other IT equipment should be widened to include any use within the business, whether in the factory or in the office of the manufacturer. Further, in the light of the move to phase out CST, the Government should immediately waive off CST on IT products. This, while helping the Government to prepare for the phase-out of CST at an overall level, would also provide a substantial boost to the PC sales in the country.”

important to ensure that growth becomes much more inclusive. Extend Tax Holiday: The IT sector’s tax holiday is expiring in 2009 and to sustain growth, this should ideally be extended. Reduce Tax Burden: The Indian industry and individual taxpayers are keen to see a reduction in tax rates. The communications industry in India is one of the fastest growing in the world, with India leading the growth in cellular subscriptions. While urban teledensity is increasing rapidly, there is a lot of potential to improve rural teledensity. Wireless for last-mile connectivity is a huge opportunity and can help in this regard. Another huge opportunity is broadband. It would be good if the USO fund is utilized to provide subsidy for broadband services in remote and hilly areas, as suggested by TRAI. Also, the government needs to encourage public-private partnerships for various value-added applications in telecom and networking.”

Development of Rural Telephony and Rural broadband infrastructure and, above all, One PC / One TV / One Broadband connection for every home at subsidized rates.

software companies will get affected and hence it has to be an IT-friendly budget. Financing software purchases has still not taken off in India. The banking system should start software financing so that companies can buy or invest in software, as they would do across with buying of any other assets.”

proposed only when the government will finalize a long-term fiscal framework. We suggest the Government should look at bringing a long-term framework in place, for policies. This will help the industry to plan their expenditure better and also help them to come out with a long-term pricing structure.”

drive home this message to the rest of the world. We expect the Government to accelerate e-governance projects and locate fixed deadlines state-wise. Considering the current thrust of the Government of India on e-Governance, we definitely expect this to be an IT-friendly budget.”

Further to this, EPC (Educational PC) segment is further likely to boost the IT industry kitty. To give a boost to the Indian hardware manufacturing, we can expect some SOP under 10A/10B beyond 2009 for Chip/Wafer manufacturing etc. Also with VAT being the norm now, it should get implemented nationally as a single country based instead of state based. All the states should/must have a common policy immediately and barriers like Octroi, which incidentally is only in Maharashtra, now should be removed at the earliest.”

US and Europe. And, with the rupee strengthening over the last six months, export income has reduced by 12–15 per cent. To add to this, the real estate rates have also gone significantly up, which impacts an IT company directly, considering the main costs are people and facility. Companies are, therefore, looking for governmental benefits that will help sustain their business models.

increase in duties on IT digital imaging peripherals (like printers, Scanners, Laser-MFDs, digital copier MFDs, etc). We hope that Budget 2008 addresses this critical issue by allowing for at least 49% abatement, considering company’s gross margins, distributor margins, retailers margins and VAT.

get it down considerably. We expect the effective duty structure for modules to come down to approximately 10%. To boost domestic demand, the government should look at reducing the duty rates.”

further jeopardize the already fragile margin pressures of the IT and ITeS segment.”

offer a level-playing ground to all IT companies in the country. In addition to this, an MRP-based duty structure on some of the IT imports such as projectors must be removed since this will not only abolish the grey market but also make the organized sector more competitive. It will also enable companies to bring to India the most technologically advanced products from around the world at affordable prices. I am sure in this budget, the Indian Government will ensure to make global hardware technology affordable to all Indians.”

their countries. Lower corporate taxes will continue to ensure we are an investor-friendly country and enable us enhance the growth further, by attracting significant global investments in the next few years. Since the IT industry has been under the stress of rupee appreciation and the FM has promised relief to such sectors, I do expect this budget to be an IT-friendly one. I expect this year there will be reduced dividend distribution rates and no surcharge on tax rates. Hopefully, the Ministry will also concede to the industry’s demands to extend the tax holiday available to software and IT-enabled Services companies under the software technology park scheme, beyond 2009. This year should have a friendlier budget with reduced taxes and additional benefits to the IT sector.”

T. Murali Krishna Reddy, Managing Director, Geneva Software Technologies Ltd. 
“With an appreciation on the Rupee front, it is very much required for the Finance Minister to look into providing more Export Benefits, in addition to the existing benefits to compete globally.”