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The IT industry must have got nothing from the Budget. It expected clarity on transfer pricing and relief from the Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT). Disappointed, the industry, however, is seeking solace in the prospect of huge IT and technology spending by the Centre.
Though the Centre has not indicated exact investment numbers, the industry feels that it would sure drive growth of domestic industry. Technology is an important component of several programmes announced by the Finance Minister.
The industry is quick to identify the opportunity in the agricultural e-marketing platform that is going to live in the next few weeks.
The Unified Agricultural Marketing E-Platform would be introduced in 585 regulated wholesale markets in 12 States that are ready with the amended APMC Act.
Though several agricultural market have already implemented IT solutions, providing live prices of commodities, the new e-platform promises to provide a wider market opportunity to farmers.
‘A mixed bag’“It is a mixed bag for us. The spending on social sector and the primary sector is going to drive the technology consumption by the government and its agencies. The e-platform for agricultural produce and the huge expansion of Digital Literacy Mission to cover six crore households would drive the IT consumption are case in a point,” Nasscom Chairman BVR Mohan Reddy, told BusinessLine .
Though there is no word on the allocations for these initiatives, the industry feels that these would drive investments on adoption by various stakeholders. The Finance Minister also said the Centre will introduce a Bill in this session to ensure targeted delivery of financial and other subsidies, benefits and services by using the Aadhaar. He also promised to develop a Social Security platform with Aadhaar as the backbone. The Centre would also automate three lakh out of the 5.35 lakh fair price shops by March 2017 to plug pilferages and increase visibility of the inventory. It is also planning to streamline procurement of goods and services by a host of ministries and agencies.
“The plan to modernise land records and build a Digital Repository for school certificates too would drive demand for IT productions and solutions,” the Nasscom Chairman said.
The other IT-based initiatives include development of an electronic auction platform by the market regulator SEBI for corporate bonds.
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