The Hindu Business Line : Budget fails to excite Infosysians

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Bangalore Feb. 28 It was business as usual for the rest of Infosys at its Bangalore campus, but for this group of young executives, it was different. While on a normal day, they would be busy number crunching or writing some complex code, on B-Day, they were all huddled around the small screen trying to make sense of the Finance Minister's Budget.

But Budget 2007 failed to excite this group. The mood was sombre as Mr P. Chidambaram read his Budget speech. The Budget provisions bringing the IT sector within the purview of MAT (minimum alternate tax) and ESOPs under the fringe benefit tax umbrella left them disappointed.

Dividend distribution

Adding to the disappointment of Mithul Gandhi (25) is the proposal to hike the dividend distribution tax, as this will affect dividend payout of his mutual fund investments. What worries him even more is MAT adversely impacting his future wages.

But he thinks it is the right time to invest in a house and with reduction in excise duty making plywood, water purifiers etc cheaper, he says he would buy a few household items and accessories.

And an announcement to make Mumbai the financial centre cheers Mithul a bit more, as he is from the city. He says this will bring in more employment opportunities. "The city will surely develop, especially its infrastructure." But what is heartening to note is that these youngsters are sensitive to the needs of the less privileged in both rural and urban India. Budget 2007 is stable and tries to be all-inclusive with special focus on agriculture, education and infrastructure, say the Infosysians.

`The other India'

Ganesh (32), part of the corporate planning team at Infosys, expresses concern on `the other India' not having participated in the economic boom when he says, "The good thing about this Budget is that it tries to ensure that the rich don't get richer. Lot of growth is happening in the software industry today. But those in the rural areas, as also the urban poor, are not part of this growth. They are seeing it happen from the outside. But certain announcements regarding job creation for the physically challenged, scholarships for students and upgradation of ITIs will give them opportunities and make them feel included."

While 27-year-old Urvashi Walde plans to invest in tax-free infrastructure bonds, Ganesh is excited about investing in stocks of companies in the power, infrastructure, textiles and biotechnology sectors.

Small service providers

"I think these will go up as they have received some concessions," he says. Christy Chandy (26) thinks raising the tax exemption limit for small service providers will "encourage more people to get into the services industry and ultimately benefit the consumers."

But the youngsters are not enthused by the Finance Minister's marginal concession in raising the IT exemption threshold by a meagre Rs 10,000. Lavanya Iyer (26) thinks this will not really affect those working in the corporate sector.

Is the Budget gender sensitive? Although there were some announcements, they were not very clear and one has to wait till they are implemented, says Lavanya.