Press Information Bureau
Government of India
Ministry of Communications & Information Technology
Government of India
Ministry of Communications & Information Technology
01-March-2016 18:01 IST
Budget to boost Digital
India vision
The Union Budget 2016-17 has given a big
boost to the Digital India vision of the Hon’ble Prime Minister. The
announcements made by Finance Minister, which are expected to give a big boost
to Digital India initiatives, Digital literacy, greater application of Cloud
and above all big push to the Electronics Manufacturing are
appreciable steps. The Finance Minister has also focused upon the
larger involvement of post office platform for financial inclusion, including
delivery of services.
Before coming to the specifics of
announcements in Budget, it would be relevant to note
very briefly some of the key areas of
profound change, which has happened in
the last 20 months.
1. IT / ITeS exports has crossed USD
100 billion.
2. India’s share in global IT
services outsourcing presently is 56 %, which is growing every year.
3. The total employment in IT
/ ITeS sector is 37 lacs in this financial
year, out of which the net addition is 2 lacs.
4. Electronics Manufacturing has
seen remarkable improvement, due to the initiatives of this government. When
this government came to power, in June 2014, the proposals
worth of only 11,800 crores were received. Now, it has risen to
1,20,294 crores.
5. Due to the initiatives
taken up in the last Budget, especially the duty
rationalization, we have noticed remarkable
acceleration in the field of Electronics
manufacturing. In this connection, mobile
manufacturing
presents very encouraging area. In 2014-15, the mobile
units manufactured in the country were 5.4 crores,
which have more than doubled to 11 crores in 2015-16. After
the duty rationalization in the last Budget, 16 new mobile
manufacturing units have been set up in this financial
year.
NEW INCENTIVES IN THIS BUDGET:
Electronics Manufacturing:
Efforts made in the previous
Budgets of this government for promoting electronic
manufacturing in India has also got
encouraging boost during this budget by
further rationalization of duty
structure. As a result of
this the domestic manufacturers
of Routers, Broadband Modems, Set-Top
Boxes, Digital Video Recorders, Network Video Recorders, CCTV
Camera, Lithium- Ion Battery would enjoy
duty advantage of 8.5% vis-a-vis
imported goods. Domestic value addition In
mobile phone phones, battery, wired
headsets/speakers would enjoy a duty
advantage of 10.5% vis-a-vis imported goods. This will
also encourage domestic
manufacturing of components. Domestic
manufacturing of routers and
broadband
modems will further encourage
manufacturing of telecom
equipments.
In the IT/ITeS (IT Enabled Services)
sector, sunset date for Section 10AAof the Income Tax
Act allowing tax benefits for IT units in SEZs has been extended
from 2017 till 2020. This will enable technology
units to set up and commence operations in SEZs.
A very significant incentive
IS the extension of Section
80 JJAA to Income Tax Act for skill
development to services companies as well. This
will permit 30 % of additional wages paid to new workmen, deductible for 3
years. This will give a big boost
to the BPO operations, which
this government is pushing-in a big way.
Encouragement
to Digital Literacy & Digital
Lockers:
We are happy to
note that the
Finance Minister has provided for creation of
Digital depository of school leaving certificates, college degrees and
mark-sheets. This would enhance the
footprint of cloud technology in the Country. The IT
department has already laid down the
framework for cloud technology and will assist in
the expansion.
The Budget has given extraordinary
expansion to Digital Literacy in the country,
consisting of imparting digital
literacy to 6 crore households in
next 3 years. The IT department was keenly pushing for this
expansion. As of now, against the target of 52.5 lacs, more
than 40 lacs have been trained.
Use of Aadhar
platform for delivery of services
The Finance Minister himself, as announced In
the budget, will be moving a
legislation to give a statutory
backing to Aadhar, for delivery of
services / subsidies /
benefits, corning out of Consolidated
Fund of India. This will prevent
leakages by identifying the beneficiaries correctly and would encourage good
governance.
The Minister is assured to note that
in the budget speech, Finance Minister has laid great
stress on the use of digital platform across various
departments. This will further encourage consolidation of seminal
programmed of Digital India
Telecommunication:
FDI equity inflow in telecom Sector has
touched a new high during FY 2014-15, which is $2895
million which is 80% more than
the FDI equity inflow received during
2012-13 ($304 million) and FY 2013-14 ($
1307 million) put together.
- STATUS OF NOFN (BharatNet) as on 29.02.2016
- End June 2014-
·
OFC pipe laid is 2292 kms
·
Optical fibre laid is 358 kms
-As on 29.02.16 -
·
OFC pipe laid is 1,24,797 kms (51,616 GPs)
·
Optical fibre laid is 96,597 kms (41,086 GPs)
Reforms in Postal department:
Efforts to leverage the vast network
of India Post for implementing the mandate of financial
inclusion has received a renewed momentum from
the Budget announcements. In May 2014,
India Post had only 230 Core
Banking Branches offering anywhere Banking Services and
only 4 ATMs. Today, it is a matter of great
fulfillment that India Post has not
only installed more than 576 ATMs but
has overtaken the State Bank of India
to become India's largest Core Banking
Network having 18,231 branches. By March, 2016 all the
25,000 Departmental Post Offices would offer Anywhere Banking facilities using
Core Banking Solutions. 1000 ATMs shall also be installed by
31st March 2016. This would imply
that all Post Office Savings
accounts/certificates in all 155,000 Post Offices of lndia will come
under Core Banking Solutions. As on 29th February, 2016 India
Post has issued 1,26,181 ATM/Debit Cards to its
account holders. It is also expected that
by 31st March, 2016 20,000 Micro ATMs
shall be installed across
the country. Further, India Post
has achieved new heights in tapping the
potential of ecommerce. Its parcel revenues have witnessed a growth of 110% and
it has collected more than Rs.1200 Crores from Cash on
Delivery mode of payment for e-Commerce services.
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