Though the Union Budget has some positives, it failed to address some concerns raised by the IT industry, B V R Mohan Reddy, Vice-Chairman of Nasscom, said.

The Self-Employment Talent Utilization (SETU) is a big positive for start-ups and small and medium businesses. Reduction of Tax on royalty and fee for technical services has been reduced to 10 per cent from 25 per cent. This will help in reducing cost of technology and give more incentive for technology deployment.

Talking on the other positive measures in the Budget, he said the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) platform will encourage research and development and innovation.

“Public Procurement Dispute resolution Bill is likely to streamline the government procurement process, and also address some of the pending disputes. This will give a fillip to Industry participation in domestic markets,” B V R Mohan Reddy, who is also the Executive Chairman of Cyient, said. 

He, however, said that increase in Service Tax by 1.5 percentage points is disappointing. “Despite several representations, the Government has not acted on the Angel Tax. They have also not addressed duality in service tax and sales tax applicability to product companies,” he said.

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