TechNews
Clouds off from software industry
Finance minister M Saifur Rahman has withdrawn the 10 percent corporate income tax (Cit) in his wrap up speech on the proposed budget for the FY 2005-2006 last Wednesday. Had it not been done, the ICT associations would have suffered in their internal investments. When asked, Fahim Mashroor, the CEO of Bdjobs, was pleased to inform StarTech that government had to realise the impact on the domestic market if the software industry weren't freed from Cit. He also explained the effect in terms of foreign investments as most of them consider the viability in terms of tax measures prior to their investment in every sector. Sarwar Alam, the president of Bangladesh Association for Software and Information Services (Basis) had stressed on the fact that software should not be considered as only an export sector used for earning foreign currencies only, but a major investment by itself for the development of the country. The president was speaking at a roundtable discussion to address the government co-organised by three major ICT organisations of the nation -- Bangladesh Computer Samity (BCS), Internet service providers association of Bangladesh (Ispab) and Basis. Prior to the withdrawal of the Cit, Basis sent a request with initials from their 120 members to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). "Knowledge and competition have become the two major factors of production in the present economy and information technology is the main driving force to acquire them in this present society. Our deficiency lies in our understanding for which even now when IT has been identified as a key source of development we are not prioritising it", pointed out Abdul Awal Mintoo, the president of Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI). Observing the remarks from the software industrialists and other noted fellows, the president had promised his effort to persuade the government regarding this issue. More than 350 software companies are operating in the country with 6000 graduated IT professionals. The current value of the software market is about Taka 200 crore, of which 50 percent to 60 percent come from local entrepreneurs. Recently, Basis has observed that the software market has witnessed 122 percent export growth in the last six months. Unlike other industries exports of software earn 100 percent local value addition. The average payback period is over five years with investments from taka 30 lacs to taka 3 crores. Saad Hammadi
| 
