Expectations among the young enthusiast and start-ups are high. Since IT envelopes a huge plethora of sectors like hardware, software, services, connectivity, etc the complexity to satistfy all the sector can be made easy by providing a tax holiday, especially to the sector, which is generating jobs for the youth and is contributing to “Make in India”.
First and the foremost, the IT hardware Manufacturing Industry is anxiously awaiting for the Government to provide Duty Differential Scheme to PC/ laptops/desktops and Customer Premises equipments like Networking Switches, Routers, Modems etc and the surveillance equipments. This would be in line with the mission Make in India where manufacturing would be encouraged over direct imports in order to achieve Net Zero Imports as envisaged under Digital India.
Nitin Kunkolienker, Vice President, Manufacturers’ Association of Information Technology (MAIT) told Herald, “We expect that the Union finance minister would encourage manufacturing of populated PCBs in India so that there complete value chain for IT industry is built and developed in the country. This will help in generating mass employment and Goa will surely benefit from this. Encouragement be given to Start Ups and Skill India with fiscal incentives for setups and sustenance.”
Prajyot Mainkar, Chairman of the Young Entreprenuer Forum of Goa believes that local capital investment in start-ups must be given incentives and the Government should also think about establishing the Credit Guarantee Fund so that startups in Goa can take full advantage of such initiatives. “The Start Up Action plan talked of a three-year holiday from paying income taxes and many other incentives. But this has to be notified so that startups can avail of the benefits immediately,” added Mr Mainkar.
Vice President of the Goa IT Professionals (GITP), Vincent Toscano is of the opinion that necessary funding needs to be provisioned for the BSNL which today is unable to provide broadband connectivity even 13 kilometers away from Panjim, citing its Rs 8000 crore annual loss.
