Early industry reactions to the Indian budget 2021
1 Feb 2021 by India Tech Online
Professional organizations: Nasscom: “The plan to set up a world-class fintech hub and the allocation of INR 1,500 crore to provide financial incentives for digital payments are certainly positive steps towards realizing a cashless economy. The proposal to amend apprenticeship law to boost skilling is a welcome step to further enhance employability in the country. Start-ups and SMEs play a critical role in defining India’s growth story. While there have been steps taken such as incentivizing incorporation of one-person companies and the extension of claiming tax holidays and capital gains for one more year, this was a perfect opportunity to do something disruptive for the sector, like extending the available tax holiday of 3 years to all start-ups registers under DPIIT, which would impact over 40000 start-ups in the country.The IT/ITeS industry has been a key driver of growth and jobs in 2020 and we have the opportunity to significantly accelerate its ability to do more. For the IT sector, one of the biggest needs ahead of us is the development of future business models, with hybrid working becoming a reality. We look forward for the government to provide clarity on providing a framework in direct taxes and indirect taxes for the industry to adopt WFH/remote working on a long-term basis. Secondly, we require WFH to be enabled in SEZs on a long-term basis. Since this requires movement of duty-free goods like laptops etc outside the SEZs, the Finance Ministry should provide the requisite clarifications under Customs and GST.