Industry players were quick to express their sentiments and view points on the Budget 2009-10

Here are some of such quotes

Intex:

"In keeping with the election promises, the FM has rolled out a budget heavily focused on the aam aadmi, rural population and the farmers. Considering the heavy expenditure on the sect reforms, there is little left for any major funding of IT hardware promotion or IT education schemes. He has however announced a small support of Rs. 900 crores for education mission for ICTE sector, mainly aiming at the aspirations of the young population,” said Ramesh A Vaswani- Executive Vice Chairman Intex Technologies.

 "There is a small decrease in duty for LCD panels from 10 % to 5 %. To encourage local manufacturing , SET TOP Box has been imposed with a basic customs duty of 5 %."

NASSCOM:

Som Mittal, President, NASSCOM said, “The Finance Minister’s decision to extend fiscal benefits available to the industry under Section 10A/10B for one year will help the industry mitigate the impact of the current economic environment and help India retain its competitiveness.”

Pramod Bhasin, Chairman, NASSCOM said, “Many of the initiatives in this year’s budget recognize the role the IT BPO industry can play in promoting inclusive growth and creating substantial employment opportunities in the country. The industry will be keen to partner with the Government in expanding e-governance initiatives including modernization of employment exchanges, the UIAD project, and smart cards for healthcare services so as to achieve enhanced governance.  Increased capital outlays on the education and infrastructure sector will also address growth challenges that the country has faced.”

Aricent:

Aricent CEO Sudip Nandy said, “Aricent welcomes the Union Budget 2009  as it delivers on  quite a few  of the expectations of the IT industry. We are particularly pleased with the one year extension granted to the tax holiday scheme as it would greatly benefit the SMEs especially given the tough market conditions faced due to the downturn. It is heartening that the finance minister has abolished the Fringe Benefit Tax and double taxation on the packaged software which will simplify business.

We are also very pleased on the budget’s focus on infrastructure, job creation and most importantly education especially to improve the quality of the existing IITs and NITs.”

“However, the increase in MAT is a bit of a concern as it could impact current cash flow for companies. Although, as we come out  of  tax holiday and the effective tax rate increases, this increase in MAT could eventually get offset  against  higher taxes  in future years.”

HCL Infosystems:

Budget Reaction from Ajai Chowdhry, CEO and Chairman, HCL Infosystems limited

Overall this budget is good for the IT sector with certain facets that are encouraging for the sector. However, ICT Industry was looking for more support from the Govt. We had recommended a 100% depreciation on financing of IT equipments which was not included. On taxation aspect, the excise/CVD exemption is unclear as it was not stated whether VAT is included in this or not. The Govt. has also put a huge focus on R&D and it is good to see continuity of fiscal stimuli by the Govt. Various projects and schemes announced by Govt, will require increased role of Information Technology for eg. - the UID project. It is critical now to implement these projects at the earliest.

Other encouraging measures include the ‘Mission in Education through ICT’ which has been substantially increased to Rs.900 crore and the provision for setting up and up-gradation of Polytechnics under the Skill Development Mission enhanced to Rs.495 crore. More and More should be done to give an impetus to ICT in Education and Literacy. It was also discouraging to see that the extension of the sunset clause was only for one year which ideally should have been extended for a longer period.

Cyber Media:

Comments of Prasanto K Roy, Chief Editor, ICT Publications, CyberMedia