Indian software product companies write to government requesting reforms

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: India’s homegrown software product firms have urged the government to reform the sector, in order to better compete with global rivals.

About 120 large product companies, including prominent ones such as Zoho, Freshworks, Tally Solutions and Quick Heal Technologies, have written to Union Minister of Electronics and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad requesting that the government should do away with tax deducted at source (TDS) on local software products and Softex forms that assess the value of a product each time it is exported.

“We have represented through iSPIRT (software products industry lobby group) time and again to remove both these provisions, to no avail,” the letter said, adding it was a much-needed reform considering the present global economic conditions.