'Could have been better' IT industry representatives

The Budget could have been better," seems to be the refrain of the IT industry representatives.

B Ramalinga Raju, founder and chairman Satyam Computer Services Limited, said, "It has been a positive Budget in as much as lowering of fiscal and revenue deficit and projections of higher growth are concerned, though there have been no major announcements for the promotion of the IT industry. This apart, the government has always been talking about greater penetration of IT. With packaged software and IT hardware becoming costlier because of the levies, IT penetration may become difficult."

Shakti Sagar, managing director of ADP, said, "We had better expectations from the Budget. FBT should have been removed as it is an administrative burden apart from being an additional expenditure. The minor changes that the finance minister has made affects the industry only on a superficial level. If fund raising was the criteria, the FM could as well have used the corporate tax method and done away with FBT," he added.

Infotech Enterprises president and executive director Sudhir Sethi said that a major element from the IT perspective that was missing from the Budget was clarity regarding the sunset clause on software technology parks and export oriented units.

According to the clause, the tax holiday under Section 10A/10B of Income Tax Act ends in 2009. "It would have been better for the industry if the finance minister had announced extension of the benefits with regard to the aforesaid sections," he added.