Union Budget 2016 : Major Tech Related Announcements and Reactions

The Union Budget for 2016-2017 has been tabled in the parliament, and reactions are now pouring in thick and fast from across all quarters. The day saw the tech industry react favourably to the slew of announcements by the Finance Minister which will look to spur technological developments in the country in the coming years.

Emphasising on the importance of technology, a key aspect which will drive forward PM Modi’s Digital India initiative, Arun Jaitley in the lower house said “technology would be used in all aspects, starting from tax and markets to data mining and more with the help of better IT systems”

Here are the major announcements made by the Finance Minister which were tech related and would impact the consumer markets, and us in the coming days.

• The FM announced two new schemes — national digital literacy mission and digital Saksharta Abhiyan, both aimed at improving digital literacy in the rural and urban areas of the country.
• National Digital Literacy Mission Scheme aimed at rural areas of the Internet, which aims at making the Indian citizens connected with Internet.
• The FM announced that the government plans to cover about 6 crore houses in rural areas in the next three years and provide digital devices like computers, tablet PCs and smartphones, and Internet usage
• FM Jaitley announced cabinet’s approval of the Start Up India campaign. To encourage entrepreneurs, Jaitley has announced a range of tax benefits, including 100 percent tax deduction for three out of five years.
• Proposal to reduce excise duty on inputs, parts and components, subparts for manufacture of charger/adapter, battery and wired headsets/speakers of mobile phone from 12.5% to nil.

The day saw major names from the industry come out and react to these announcements that could have a major impact on the industry over the coming fiscal. Here’s a round up of what the biggest names from the industry had to say.

Debjani Ghosh, Vice President, Sales and Marketing Group and Managing Director for South Asia at Intel on Union budget 2016, said in a statement

“The budget is strongly focused on bridging the divide between the ‘haves’ and ‘have not’s’, and good work by the Government in identifying the right priorities for focus under the 9 pillars called out by the FM. This budget, unlike any other, has not treated technology in isolation but integrated the effective use of technology across all the strategic imperatives in keeping with the intent of a Digital India.

Vinu Cheriyan, CFO & Director Operations at Sennheiser Electronics India Pvt Ltd had this to say,

“It is heartening to see our accelerated to 7.6% and the CPI inflation has come down to 5.4%.  It is also quite encouraging to see that fiscal discipline has been given priority at today’s budget while focusing on the GDP growth” He further added  “The budget didn’t mention much about the electronic segment at all, we need to go through the fine print to delve deeper into it.It is great to see that both corporates and salaried employees are relieved in the budget as there is an improved cash flow for the middle class due to various tax reliefs”

Talking about the impact of the budget on the burgeoning mobile phone industry, Mr. Rajesh Agarwal, Co-Founder, Micromax Informatics Limited, said,

” Make in India continues to be an important agenda for the government as the new manufacturing companies are going to reap benefits in the segment. We have been one of the first companies in India to stress in local manufacturing, and it is great to see increase emphasis by the government yet again. The proposal on reduction in excise duty  on inputs, parts and components, subparts for manufacture of charger/adapter, battery and wired headsets/speakers of mobile phone, being exempted from 12.5%  to nil is a welcome move and will eventually promote the manufacturing of these components domestically..