The IT industry has given its positive reactions to the announcements made as part of the union budget 2016 – 17.
Ramesh Mamgain, Area VP, Commvault India and SAARC
“The large budget outlay for infrastructure segment, smart cities, Digital India, education, healthcare, citizen service projects, insurance and Skill India will a give boost to modernisation programs. This will create a spinoff effect on an enterprise’s IT spend too. Besides, bank recapitalisation will help in improving the health of banks, and thereby allow them to finance old as well as new-age ventures.”
Sunil Khanna, President and Managing Director of Emerson Network Power, India.
“The Government has tried to keep a healthy balance between inclusive growth and fiscal consolidation amidst global volatility and additional burden on account of the 7th pay commission, OROP. With an important focus on digitation, the government has shown good intent in keeping up the momentum of the Make In India and Digital India Mission. The government has shifted its focus from large cities to rural areas showing a clear intent to uplift those who belong to the bottom of the pyramid, especially the agricultural sector and focus on creating skilled labor.
The effort to incentivize the Make In India program by way of domestic value adding in the Electronics Manufacturing Systems segment is a step in the positive direction as is the removing of custom duties. This augurs well for us as majority of the spending in our industry is on imported ESDM Electronic System Design & Manufacturing items. From a taxation standpoint, lowering of Corporate IT Tax for companies not exceeding Rs. 5 crore turnover to 25% plus surcharge is a positive move as it offers incentives to SMEs and SMBs in the country to focus on their growth. Another proposal that will benefit the country and stimulate start-ups on the growth trajectory is the amendments to the taxation for new manufacturing companies incorporated after is 1ST March 2016 as they will now have the option to be taxed at 25% plus surcharge and cess provided they do not claim profit linked to investment.”
Altaf Halde, Managing Director – South Asia, Kaspersky Lab
“The overall Union Budget 2016-17 is encouraging for the common man, especially the tax relief in HRA. The announcement of Digital literacy scheme to be launched to cover 6 crore additional rural households is a welcome move. This will not only boost the fast adoption of digital technologies across the country but also encourage digital means to reach out to consumers and different markets. Start-ups getting 100% tax exemption for 3 years except MAT is again a good call taken by the government, as this will entice budding entrepreneurs to start their own business and since we are targeting this sector for our software business, it could prove beneficial for us as well. Besides, it will also help in creation of more and more jobs in the country. Overall, it’s a balanced and realistic budget in difficult times.”
MAIT Urges Government to Reconsider Reducing R&D Incentives
Debjani Ghosh, President, MAIT, “The budget is strongly focused on bridging the divide between the ‘haves’ and ‘have not’s’, and good work by the Government in identifying the right priorities for focus under the 9 pillars called out by the FM. This budget, unlike any other, has not treated technology in isolation but integrated the effective use of technology across all the strategic imperatives in keeping with the intent of a Digital India. This budget has laid emphasis on governance reforms and ease of doing business, while highlighting the need for enhancing educational skills in order to make India a knowledge based economy. We are disappointed with announcement of the R&D incentives reducing because we believe that it is critical for India to be one of the most innovative countries in the world and this move could be detrimental in building India as an innovation hub. I strongly urge the government to re-consider this move, as any restrictions on the R&D ecosystem are likely to decelerate innovation in the country and restrain the ambitious Make in India and Digital India vision.”
According to Anwar Shirpurwala, Executive Director, MAIT “#Budget2016 has met our demands partially to help the Indian ICT industry move from assembly to next level of manufacturing, however, certain products have been missed out. We hope that preferential duty tariffs will be extended to include components and parts that go into the manufacture of laptops/notebooks in the near future. Having existing manufacturing facilities, this will help to unleash the full impact of ‘Make in India’ and realize the twin goals of higher domestic value addition and local employment generation.”
“For the first time the government has clearly put an effort of creating an integrated approach by building connectivity through road, rail, air and waterways.”
“Measures taken to proliferate use of technology and increase overall penetration of IT in the country are commendable.”
