Vijay Kumar, CFO, Sify Technologies

Mumbai: Sify Technologies CFO MP Vijay Kumar says that this is the right time to stimulate the economy to continue along the growth path, and that's exactly what the Finance Minister has attempted with Budget 2008-09.

The measures on income tax revision, reduction in the general CENVAT rate on all goods from 16 per cent to 14 per cent to stimulate the manufacturing sector, reduction in duty on convergence products from 10 per cent to 5 per cent and full exemption from duty specified parts of set top boxes and specified raw materials for use in the IT/electronic hardware industry are all welcome steps. 

However, it is disappointing that corporate taxes have not been reduced to stimulate growth even further. It is also unfortunate that the service tax on cyber café and broadband services have not been removed, nor has the duty on PCs and laptops been brought down further.

These would have been positive measures to spur the growth of PC and Internet penetration and use in the country at a time when we are faring very poorly compared to even other developing countries.