ISODA holds its first national meet

MUMBAI, INDIA: The first national meeting of Infotech Software Dealers Association (ISODA) was held on Feb 1, at Hotel Suncity Residency, Mumbai. Partners from all over the country attended the meeting.

Partners supporting ISODA contribute to approximately 60 percent of the packaged software business in the country.

The major issues discussed were-the implication of various taxes applicable on packaged software products viz. VAT, service tax, CVD, withholding tax; the impact of working capital of partners due to the deduction of TDS by customers where service tax is charged on invoice; and the issues of day-to-day transactions with the distributors and streamlining of the same.

It was decided that a task force be formed for each of the above issues and take up with the respective departments, principals and distributors to arrive at a quick solution. The task force will be operational with equal representation from each region.

Another topic of discussion was the sudden imposition of delivery charges by a cartel of distributors is not acceptable to the ISODA members since delivery is an integral part of the distribution model; and its part of the fixed cost and cannot be charged to the partners.

In view of the high volatility in the dollar exchange rate, many members have experienced lot of difficulties in executing orders and some have even incurred losses in certain transactions during last few months.

ISODA managing committee informed the members that representations have been done with the concerned vendors including Microsoft to implement fixed INR to Dollar conversion rate for a minimum period of one month to bring stability in the purchase price and we expect positive results inthe days to come.

Another task force has been set up to guide ISODA members on the best business practices in the current ambiguous taxation environment and will set up the guidelines for the members to ensure minimum tax risk for the member while dealing with vendors/customers.

ISODA members felt it was of utmost importance to educate the customers on the issues related to confusing taxation structure and seek their support for the benefit of the members.

Necessary steps would be taken by ISODA for the same.

However one members from Mumbai claimed that while it was interesting to interact with software resellers from all over the country, the event would have been more meaningful had some concrete results come through from the discussions.

"While the decisions undertaken are good, we are waiting concrete results," this Mumbai-based software distribution.