Lots of reactions in, following the NDA government’s second budget announced on Saturday, February 28, 2015. Some of the reactions below have been clipped to remove fluff, and for brevity: On Taxation: - Saahil Hoel, CEO & co Founder, KartRocket.com Tax on royalty/fee for technical services reduced from 25% to 10% will help reduce cost of technology and reduction of Corporate tax to 25% from 30% will help companies divert more money towards investment and growth. However an increase in the rate of service tax will have an adverse impact even though the government is of the opinion that this would help facilitate the transition to GST . - Divakar Vijayasarthy, Founder, MeetUrPro Reducing the tax and withholding rates from 25% to 10% is a hugely positive step. The effective reduction is taxation is more than 22% given the fact that most of the technology agreements are “net of tax” transactions. This amendment makes cost of technology a lot more accessible and affordable to the Indian startups and businesses. Reduction of corporate tax from 30% to 25% over a period of 4 years would bring India at par with many of the attractive business destinations of the world. Currently the average corporate tax rate is around 23%. However with gradual phasing out of exemptions, the overall change is taxation position seems marginal. The positive takeaway is the possibility of reduced litigation owing to taxation exemptions. - Bhaskar Pramanik, Chairman-Microsoft India The reduction in corporate tax, albeit over the next four…
