IT
Sector Heads seek help from Government against Protectionist policies; also
seek Tax incentives for growth of the sector
The Union Minister of
finance and Corporate Affairs Shri Arun Jaitley said that to
promote indigenous manufacturing of electronic goods, many steps have been
taken by the present Government in last three years including rationalization
of the tariff structure with extension of differential excise duty dispensation
on specified electronic equipments and withdrawal of duty exemption etc. The
Finance Minister said that in the Union Budget 2017-18, with the aim of creating
an eco-system to make India a global hub for electronics manufacturing, the
allocation for incentive schemes like M-SIPS and EDF has been exponentially
increased to Rs 745 crores. The Finance Minister Shri Jaitley was making the
Opening Remarks during his 6th Pre-Budget
Consultation Meeting with Stakeholders from IT (Hardware &Software) Group in
New Delhi today. Along with the Union Finance Minister Shri
Jaitley, the Pre-Budget Consultation Meeting was also attended by the Minister
of State, Shri S.PShukla, Dr. Hasmukh
Adhia, Finance Secretary, Shri A.N. Jha, Secretary, Expenditure, Shri Subhash
Chandra Garg, Secretary (Economic Affairs), Shri Ajay Prakash
Sawhney, Secretary, MEITY, Dr.
Arvind Subramanian, Chief Economic Adviser (CEA), Shri Sushil Kumar Chandra,
Chairman, CBDT and other
senior officers of the Ministry of Finance.
Stakeholders
from IT Group who attended today’s meeting included Shri Thejesh GN,
Co-Founder, Datameet, Shri T.V. Ramchandran, President, Broadband India Forum,
Shri N.K. Goyal, Chairman Emeritus, TEMA, Shri Sunil Kumar Dhareshwar, Sr. Vice
President, Global Head taxation Infosys, Ms.Renu Narvekar, Vice President,
Global-Tax, TCS, Shri R Chandrasekhar, President NASSCOM, Shri Nitin
Kunkoliender, Vice President, MAIT, Shri Pankaj Gulati, President, ELCINA, Shri
Hari Om Rai, Co-Chairman, Fast Track Task Force (FTTF), Shri Rajiv Agarwal,
Vice Chairman, telecom Equipment & Services Export, Shri Prasad Garapati,
Chairman Electronics and Computer Software Export.
The IT sector
representatives invited the attention of Minister to the fact that India’s
competence in IT-Software is recognized globally.
In recent times, software development and information technology enabled
services (ITeS) including business process outsourcing (BPO)/ knowledge process
outsourcing services (KPO) industry in India has emerged as one of the most
dynamic and vibrant sectors in India’s economy with huge employment potential.
They however pointed out that considering some recent protectionist and
discriminatory policies followed by other countries, the IT sector would need
Government’s help at Policy level to ensure combat visa restrictions issues as
also to ensure our economic interests. Similar to steps taken in previous
budget to promote indigenous manufacturing of electronic goods, more steps to include
rationalization of the tariff structure with extension of differential excise
duty dispensation to mobile handsets/ tablet computers and other specified
electronic equipment, should be taken in the forthcoming budget for Promoting
Broadband; Access for easier fund for Telecom; Tax free Bond for Telecom; Lowering
GST on Telecom services to 12 per cent instead of 18 per cent; BCD on all non
ITA-1 products; Depreciation benefits for Make In India; Promote components
hub; Keep Electronics Sector out of RCEP and increase Import Duty on Mobile
handsets.
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