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Technology Stocks : Satyam Infoway Ltd-(Nasdaq:SIFY) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (1008)	3/3/2000 2:04:00 PM
From: Mohan Marette	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1471

Budget Offers Sops to IT Industry - To facilitate Internet boom - AsiaInternet By Uday Lal Pai India Correspondent, asia.internet.com [March 2, 2000--MUMBAI] Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha's Budget -- presented in the Indian Parliament on February 29 -- is an acknowledgement of the fact that the Internet and convergence are the driving forces of the new Indian economy. The multiple sops offered to the telecom and IT sector in the Budget are expected to lead to a boom in Internet penetration in the country. One of the highlights of the Budget is the acknowledgment of ISPs as infrastructure -- a proposal that allows the import of certain equipment by ISPs at a lower basic customs duty of 5 percent and thereby reduce network installation costs. "The liberalization in venture capital finance, both in structure- and tax-related issues, has given ISPs a major fillip," said Sunil Mittal, chairman and group managing director of Bharti Enterprises. "ISPs like us can now set up large-scale Internet services at affordable rates for consumers," he claimed. The finance minister has reduced duties on cellular handsets and optical fiber cables in addition to computer and ISP equipment, which means that telecom and Internet industries can now look forward to a significant acceleration of teledensity and Internet penetration. The venture capital (VC) taxation benefit will boost VC funding in India, which will lead to a significant increase in 'dotcom' activity in the country, say analysts. "Any incentive provided to ISPs is the single most important point for a dotcom company like ours," said V.S. Sudhakar, managing director of Fabmart. "This is because the ISPs can help reach out to new consumers and help improve solutions," he said. On the flip side of the Budget, while the concessional duty of 5 percent has been retained, duties on certain specified equipment for ISPs will increase owing to the so-called special additional tax (SAD). Sadly, this will increase the cost of putting up infrastructure, even as the IT-friendly budget promotes increased rollout of networks for telecom services and transmission backbones for ISPs.