Budget proposals for IT Industry :

1.Reduction in custom duty on computer inputs from 10% to 0%.

2.Counter Vailing Duty of 4% levied on the above imported inputs with credit for the proposed CVD available against payment of excise duty.

3.IT software imports to be exempt from the proposed CVD.

4.Reduction in effective tax rate to 33.7% not to have any impact on software and hardware companies due to available tax benefits.

5.Taxation of fringe benefits to impact software companies.

Out of all the above aspects, the industry is trying hard to read the fine print to get a better understanding for the meaning of “fringe benefits”. Apart from travel and canteen benefits, an employee has to part with some tax amount relating to certain benefits he receives like mobile bill reimbursement, etc. However the exact definition and categories that would fall under fring benefit is far from clear.