Union Budget 2017-18: ‘Extend investment allowance under Section 32 AC to Telecom Infra Providers’

G. V. Kumar, Founder, CEO & Managing Director, XIUS

In the Union budget of 2017, we want to draw government's attention towards investment allowance being given under section 32 AC. At present this investment rebate is limited to companies that are in the business of manufacturing products. Other sectors, for e.g. developing and building an infrastructure facility, telecom infrastructure service providers, core telecom technology creators, creation of broadband facility etc., are equally important and the investment advantage should be extended to these companies. This allowance will create ripple effect and enable further investments in these sectors. This approach is vital when the Government is leaving no stone unturned in order to take forward the digital payments and other e-initiatives in our country.

Having said that, we wholeheartedly welcome e-governance initiatives like Digital India, which are entirely supported by technology and is a result of continuous investments by the technology companies in cloud, Cyber Security, IoT and the like. Going forward, we expect the Narendra Modi led government to offer incentives in the form of weighted deduction on R&D costs similar to sectors, like Pharmaceutical and Automobile.