Union Budget 2022 : IT Expectations

Union budget 2022 is just on its way to release. The financial occasion is around the corners and all eyes are on the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and on 1 February 2022.
The business, across all sectors, has expectations from this budget 2022 from Finance Minister.
Let’s have a look at what the IT industry is expecting from budget 2022 –

Ketan Patel, Managing Director, HP India
As per sources, MD of HP India -“Ensuring the pandemic, the world needs to be accelerated on its technical grounds. Which requires the setup of efficient digital infrastructure that can sustain the hybrid model in the new normal. In addition to providing the teachers and students with digital tools to ensure uninterrupted learning, the government must support training programs to upskill government school teachers and prepare them for online teaching needs in the future.”

“Same case with other Government departments as they are also in need of better digital infrastructure setup for working in this adopting tech world. ”

Anuj Khosla, CEO, Digital Business, Hitachi Payment Services
“The Union Budget 2022 must encourage the MSME(Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises ) sector to go with digital payments progressively. The digital payment ecosystem can unlock value for MSMEs by helping them expand their customer base, improving cash flows through the faster realization of funds, providing upsell opportunities, reducing costs, and creating a digital footprint that would enable easy access to credit at cheaper rates. With the impact of the pandemic and the shift towards online purchases and adoption of digital payment modes by consumers, MSMEs need to be adequately equipped to cater to changing customer needs and behavior while enabling them to thrive in an evolving digital landscape.” – as per sources.

Hari Om Rai, Chairman and Managing, Director, Lava International Limited
The industry has two major demands: “One, To make a separate budget head for building National Champions – To acquire strategic skills and become global Indian champions have a remarkable potential to create national wealth and become beacons of economic progress for India’s long term technological and financial independence. It is highly imperative to develop and bolster Indian champions to bring strategic skills & technology and augment GDP, employment, and foreign exchange. Two, no further increase in component duties in this budget as it impacts our global competitiveness. We are looking at creating economies of scale to create global competitiveness, value addition will follow.” – as per sources.

Ramanujam Komanduri, Country Manager, India, Pure Storage
“With restrictions in place amidst the third wave of Covid, large enterprises, as well as small businesses, are seeing a dip in their business activities. Both corporates and taxpayers expect relief in the form of rebates in direct and indirect taxes in the upcoming budget. We also expect the introduction of simplified compliances to facilitate the ease of doing business. The Finance Ministry could also introduce special stimulus packages to the MSME sector which is vital for economic revival. There may also be a positive surprise in the form of a relaxation of GST regulation and relief for sectors that have particularly suffered during the pandemic. The Government, to provide further impetus to business growth, could also introduce fiscal policy initiatives to build a strong digital infrastructure for MSMEs and enterprises.” – as reported in sources.