NEW DELHI: It could well be termed as the ‘calm before the storm,’ if one
takes into account certain events that have happened in the IT field. Now
consider this: Nasscom has predicted Indian software exports will soar by 51.1
per cent this year, with revenues in the range of Rs 28,500 crore ($6.24
billion) in fiscal year 2000-01, up by Rs 11,350 crore, from the Rs 17,150 crore
($4 billion) in 1999-2000.
But there has been increasing speculation among a section of the media, that
these figures may be inflated by as much as 25-30 percent. But there are two
aspects of this speculations: One, these projections do not discount the
expenditure incurred overseas on account of training, marketing and maintenance.
Second, whether it is right to include the earnings of the overseas subsidiaries
of the companies into the gross projections of the earnings?
Since Nasscom uses the figures provided by the companies per se, without
taking the above aspects into account, the argument is that these figures may
not match the ground scenario. However, Nasscom president Dewang Mehta,
vehemently denies these allegations and says the association's figures are not
overstated as Nasscom uses statistics from corporate balance sheets in which
overseas expenditure is not deducted from their income.
Mehta uses the RBI definition of exports as "all that is invoiced out of
India". Nasscom's figures depict the software exports and not the net
foreign exchange earnings. On the revenue of overseas subsidiary of Indian firms
being included in the total software Indian exports, Mehta says firms themselves
include the revenue from their overseas subsidiaries in their balance sheets. As
Nasscom includes only the figures provided by companies that have a 100 percent
overseas subsidiary, he feels that the figures have not been inflated, as
projected by a section of the media.