E-commerce transaction to touch Rs 10,000-crore mark by 2002

BANGALORE: E-commerce transactions in India will touch Rs 10,000-crore mark in the next three years if the government restrains from its proposed plan of imposing additional taxes on such transactions, according to Nasscom president Dewang Mehta.

Nasscom has urged the government to announce a three-year moratorium on imposition of any additional taxes on e-commerce transactions in the country to encourage their growth and had also asked the government to take a cue from US President Bill Clinton, who announced a three- year moratorium on taxes on e- commerce transactions.

E-commerce transactions have not gained importance due to lack of cyber laws, which would ensure security to such transactions, and its impact would be visible only after the cyber laws were in place, he said. According to a Nasscom study, e-commerce transactions in the country would grow phenomenally to Rs 2,500 crore in 2000-01 and to Rs 10,000 crore in 2001-02 after the Cyber Laws Bill is passed by mid-2000.

E-commerce transactions were estimated to be Rs 400 crore to Rs 340 crore from business to business and Rs 60 crore from business to consumer in 1999-2000, against Rs 131 crore last year, Mr Mehta said. The government should consider e-commerce as a major opportunity for the software industry, he said, adding its contribution to annual software exports from the country would be 30 per cent by 2002, by when the volumes are expected to cross $10 billion dollar mark and in 1999-2000, exports were expected to touch about $3.9 billion, he said. Internet connections through cable and phone lines, cyber laws providing identity and security to transactions and lowering of telecom tariffs in the country would act as the drivers of the next phase of e-commerce growth, he said.