Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has finally announced the much awaited union budget 2016. The tech giants has mixed reactions on it. We bring you a few excerpts from the tech industry on Budget 2016. Some of the are disappointed.
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has finally announced the much awaited union budget 2016. The tech giants has mixed reactions on it. We bring you a few excerpts from the tech industry on Budget 2016. Some of the are disappointed.
PC manufacturing
“While the government’s focus has remained on giving an impetus to domestic manufacturing, we were hoping to see the duty differential policy being extended to PC manufacturing but could not happen. We will have to engage further with the government in this area,” said Rahul Agarwal, MD, Lenovo India
Legislative backing for Aadhaar
“Enhanced investment in the budget for infrastructure, agriculture, rural and social sectors would support India’s continued journey of inclusive and sustainable growth. Protected and secure technology infrastructure fostering engendering trust will be critical to success of projects like e-marketplace, digital vaults for certificates and e-procurement. Legislative backing for Aadhaar should have requisite privacy provisions. Overall, a prudent budget, indeed!,” said Shrikant Shitole, Managing Director, India, Symantec.
More steps to accelerate Digital India
“The Digitisation of the government sector, like setting up of Digital Literacy mission which will cover six crore rural households in India ensures transparency and the huge focus on promoting Start-ups’ will only help create more jobs and propel the economy further. The budget could have spelt out more steps to accelerate Digital India,” said Anil Valluri, President, NetApp India & SAARC.
Capital market
In order to make the Government’s social and infra spend effective, a good monitoring and audit system through independent accounting firms across the country is critical. Even if 1% of spend towards audit is actioned, the productivity of spend will increase by 3 times and we will see intent matching action; Intent has to grow beyond mere announcement in the newspapers. Equity of economic growth through social spend will also curtail inflation in the long run and help economic growth. One is surprised (though happy) to see no change in service tax rate. Is this a hint that GST rate will be sub 20%? If so, this would be good.We have managed fiscal deficit owing to the oil scenario. Capital asset formation is not happening and we are not seeing much measures in that direction. Exports are key. With present exchange rates and the “Make in India” campaign, exports should have been given some thrust. We cannot bank on present oil prices to support our forex needs in long run. Taxing Dividend in hands of individual is retrograde. As profit is already after tax and there is dividend tax of 20%, another tax in the hands of the individual is unwarranted. It will also impact HNIs investing in start-ups / encouraging enterprise. Capital market has lot more role to play for economic growth and this could have been avoided,” M P Vijay Kumar, CFO, Sify Technologies Limited
Devil is in the implementation
“The budget has a number of positives in it – though in some cases they are ‘baby steps’.As always though, the devil is in the implementation of these schemes. It is good to see a mention of review of program effectiveness as one of the goals in the budget, but till we see that followed up religiously it is hard to give it credence,” said Dr. Chandan Chowdhury, Managing Director-India, Dassault Systemes.
Women start off on the road
“The government has given a major boost to startups and job creation in this budget. Given that the startup segment is a very key segment for the tech industry leading to job, value and wealth creation – the tax exemptions on capital gains in the first three years of setting up a company – will certainly give a big fillip to founding more startups. The industry efforts in this area like the Nasscom 10000 startups will get a huge boost in this area as a result. In addition the focus on entrepreneurship via the Mudra channel will provide a big stimulus to a large section of the economy. The special focus on women entrepreneurs is also really noteworthy as more and more women start off on the road to either founding startups themselves or be part of a larger founding teams – in the tech sector.” said K Jaya Kumar, Vice President and Managing Director of Walmart GTS India.
No relief on the corporate tax for big manufacturers
“The finance minister presented a balanced budget with a focus on infrastructure and agriculture sectors. By keeping the fiscal deficit target to 3.5% of the GDP, the budget addresses long term positive impact on businesses. For consumer durable and home appliances industry specifically, the budget brings mixed responses. While the focus is more on dispute resolution and simplification of provision, the voluntary income disclosure will dampen the market. The government has lowered the corporate tax for new manufacturing units at 25 per cent with a view to promote industrial activity and generate jobs. With regard to small units having a turnover of Rs. 5 crore, the corporate tax rate has been reduced from 30 per cent to 29 per cent. However, there is no relief on the corporate tax for big manufacturers. Government has stressed on GST implementation and proposed changes in customs duty to push make in India initiatives which is aimed at improving the overall business environment,” said Anirudh Dhoot, Director, Videocon
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