The Union
Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley holds his 6th Pre-Budget Consultation
Meeting with Stakeholders from IT (Hardware &Software)
Group;Highlights the steps taken by the present Government to make India
a global hub for electronics manufacturing;
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.
