Union Budget 08-09 & impact on Indian IT industry

Union Budget is welcome for India as a whole. Its quite inclusive & have much needed focus on inclusive growth. India growth story cannot be continued without making every Indian part of it.

From IT perspective & for me as IT enterepeneur its bit dis-appointing budget. Specially

1. No mention of STPI scheme extension plan. Its very critical for SME IT companies. Bigger companies can always opt for SEZ.
2. Inclusion of custom software services & software testing services under service tax net. Big dampener for domestic IT business.
3. Increase in excise duty on packaged software. Will make local software product costlier as compared to international ones.

Lets hope there will be some positive developments atleast on STPI front during the year before deadline of 2009.