How will the Budget benefit IT professionals?

BANGALORE, INDIA: Though there are not many good news for the IT industry at large, the IT professional, especially those who are in the entry and middle level, stand to benefit from the Budget proposals.

The proposal to raise the income tax slabs will definitely benefit the techies, said Karthik Shekhar, general secretary, UNITES Professionals, the trade union of IT employees.

“The earnings of most of the techies in India are less than eight lakh a year, so raising the tax ceiling will definitely benefit them,” he told CyberMedia. “We thank Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee for giving new tax rates that would offer relief to 60 per cent of taxpayers.”

He also said the proposal to extend the interest subvention scheme for housing sector to March 2011 and subsidy for banking loans up to Rs 10 lakh will benefit many young employees.

Karthik Shekhar also said that the proposal to extend interest subvention of two per cent to SMEs will also be beneficial for employees because the move may generate more jobs in the small organizations like rural BPOs.

The proposal to increase th Plan allocation for school education from Rs.26,800 crore to Rs.31,036 crore is also a move that will have a positive impact in the IT front because computerization is part of the modern education right fro the primary level.

According to Shekhar the UID project has the potential to generate a good number of jobs in the IT front and general front as well.

“The project needs huge amount of data collection. To collect and to collate, apart from the field workers, the project would require the support of IT professionals,” he said. Moreover, such a mammoth project will also require investment in the hardware and software. So the allocation of Rs 1900 crore would really benefit the IT industry in the country.

Likewise the proposal to modernize national employment exchanges and also to to provide social security to unorganized sector workers, would help generate more jobs in the Information Technology sector, said Karthik Shekhar.