The position being adopted by the Revenue authorities is in deviation of international practice

Will Budget respond…

In the telecom space, the most prominent fact that grabs the attention of N. Madhan, Tax Partner, Ernst & Young, is that mobile phones have assumed the position of absolute necessity in view of easy availability of low-cost mobiles, better network, value-added services, and competitive pricing provided by the telecom service providers.

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'Removal of dual levy of service tax and VAT/ CST on provision of right to use software is an important demand of the sector'

Sustaining IT's competitive edge

Keeping the battering of economic downturn in 2009 at bay, Indian IT (information technology) companies are quite optimistic about the business outlook in 2010 and are banking on sustained recovery and eventual job creation, observes Naveen Aggarwal, Executive Director, KPMG.

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At the moment we still have vehicles older than 10-15 years plying on Indian roads

Key to-dos for the auto sector

Five imperatives for the automotive sector, according to Abdul Majeed, India Leader for Automotive Practice, PricewaterhouseCoopers, are the following: Continue with the stimulus package to sustain growth momentum in the industry; promote adoption of ‘green technology' by introducing duty cuts and lower tariffs on components used in EFVs (environment-friendly vehicles); consider stimulus packages focussed on new technologies; introduce scrappage incentive scheme to replace the old fleet of vehicles; and continue the thrust on infrastructure, particularly the roads. Here are excerpts from a brief pre-Budget email interaction between Majeed and Business Line

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The advent of service tax has led to manifold increase in the complexity of indirect taxes

Indirect tax reform imperatives

Corporate India's hope and expectation for indirect tax reform reached a new high after the announcement of the Government's intention to introduce the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime in India, observes Vivek Pachisia, Tax Partner, Ernst & Young.

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India is currently the 10th largest defence spender in the world

Growth opportunities in Defence

Defence could be the next boom after the IT (information technology) and automotive sectors, hopes Wg Cdr Neelu Khatri (Retd), Manager, Defence Advisory Services, KPMG, New Delhi. “The total defence spending from 2010-2016 would be to the tune of $280 billion. Based on last five years' average revenue, capital expenditure on major acquisition would translate into about $115 billion,” she mentions, during a recent telephonic interaction with Business Line.

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A single uniform stamp duty rate would be recommended

Confer industry status

The Indian real estate sector plays a significant role in the country's economy and is second only to agriculture in terms of employment generation, and contributes heavily towards GDP, reminds David Jones, Partner, Assurance, Walker, Chandiok & Co, New Delhi ( www.wcgt.in). Giving, therefore, an impetus to the sector is critical to the overall growth of the economy, argues Jones, during the course of a recent pre-Budget email interaction with Business Line.

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Savings are an essential ingredient of our economy

Easing aam aadmi's burden

With every annual Budget there is a growing expectation that the Finance Minister may provide some tax relief for the aam aadmi or the common man. And the inflationary pressure, especially in a changed economic environment, accentuates such an expectation, observes R. Anand, Tax Partner, Ernst & Young. He adds, however, that any fiscal stimulus is a tightrope walk for the Government.

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'There is no point having large allocations without corresponding allocations for maintaining the asset base created'

‘Sustain the infrastructure investments'

India should look at infrastructure to lead the economy rather than just supporting the economic growth, says Mr Amrit Pandurangi, Leader Infrastructure Practice, PricewaterhouseCoopers, in the course of a recent pre-Budget interaction with Business Line, over the email.

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People in the urban areas are also moving towards dual sims

'Indian mobile market in its infancy'

It is the third week of January and ear-pads seem to be a common sight on Chennai roads. Not for listening to music, but as a protection against the ‘chill' weather. At 26 degrees Celsius, is this winter, wonders Stefan Kercza, HUB Head, Tamil Nadu & Kerala, Uninor. Back in Denmark, from where Kercza has relocated to Chennai with his family, the weather forecast at the time of writing this is ‘cloudy with a little snow.' Maximum day temperatures around minus 1 degree Celsius, minimum night temperatures around minus 9 degrees Celsius, informs www.denmark.dk.

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The garment industry has sourced its components globally for decades

Converting data into something meaningful

Most enterprises are very much aware of the information hidden within their systems, but what perplexes them is the process of extracting it and converting the data into something meaningful, says Doug Mow, Senior Vice-President-Marketing, Virtusa Corporation, US (www.virtusa.com).

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Most of our new guarantors come through referrals of current ones

Connecting guarantors to small entrepreneurs

Rekha Devi earns a living by stitching clothes. As she has only one sewing machine, she is unable to meet the growing demands of her customers… Kajal Devi runs a small hotel with her husband. She wants to grow her business by increasing the size of her hotel… Guria Devi has a dairy farm. She wants to buy some cows and she also wants to repair the thatch cutting machine, hence she has applied for a micro loan…
These are some of the stories about small entrepreneurs featured on www.unitedprosperity.org, a US 501(c)3 non-profit organisation, founded by Bhalchander Vishwanath.

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For operators to penetrate in an effective manner they need to be truly ingrained in the rural fabric

Village voice on the line

There is a huge perception gap between what the telecom operators and what rural consumers think about the adoption of mobile telephone, says a recent finding of Accenture. Its report on rural mobile telephony is the result of interviews with senior executives in the telecom ecosystem and around 2,400 consumers, informs Kumar Ranjan, Managing Partner, Telecom practice.

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The sectoral reforms were reluctantly carried out in most States

Coal sector needs capacity addition

In 2010, the top priorities for the coal sector should be energy security, conservation, and environmental issues, says Arun Srivastava, Executive Director, IRG (Infrastructure, Real Estate & Government) Practice, Ernst & Young. “At the grassroots, we must ensure rapid capacity addition to achieve service standards and affordability,” he adds, during a recent email interaction with Business Line.

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