Bangalore, July 6 (IANS): Youngsters in India's IT hub Bangalore, who have been hugely affected by the global economic recession due to large scale job losses and lack of newer employment opportunities, have expressed mixed feelings over Monday's union budget.
If young professionals have expressed happiness on the increase in the income tax exemption limit and end of fringe benefit tax, they are dissatisfied over the budget not having given a clear cut indication to end job losses and generation of employment opportunities.
"The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government's announcement to ensure 12 million new jobs each year is a positive step. But the budget has not outlined the specific measures as to which sectors will create job opportunities and how to end the ever increasing job losses, especially in Bangalore," Sudha Ganguly, an IT professional, told IANS.
Most of Bangalore's youngsters who are either employed in IT and BPO sectors or are hoping to get employment in these sectors are disappointed that no specific action plan has been charted out to bail out the industries in the wake of the global economic recession.
"Where are the job opportunities? Job losses are the order of the day. Bangalore has been hit hard by recession, as the IT and BPO sectors are the main driving force behind the city's economy," said Prema Sherpa, a BPO employee.
"We were expecting some sort of announcement in the budget to put an end to the crisis-like situation in the IT and BPO sectors," added Prema.
UNITES-Professionals (Union for Information Technology-Enabled Services-Professionals), a union of employees in the IT-Enabled Services, has predicted that 50,000 techies in India will get pink slips in 2009.
Bangalore could be the worst affected in terms of job losses as 40 percent of Indian IT and BPO professionals work in the city.
Moreover, 80 percent of IT and BPO professionals in Bangalore have seen a cut in pay packages and other perks.
"I welcome the raise in the tax exemption for the employed by Rs.10,000 each in case of both women and others and the abolition of surcharge on income tax," said IT professional Rohit Kapoor.
"But there are no sops for the IT industry, which is reeling under global slowdown, as the corporate tax is untouched. We were expecting from the finance minister some sort of goodies to revive the IT and ITES sectors. The only exception is the National ID card project worth around Rs.15,000 crore, which will be kicked off in 12-18 months time. This will bring some relief to the IT industry," Kapoor added.
Anup Dash, an IT professional, said that everyone was expecting some announcement for the corporate sector.
"But the budget was only for the 'aam aadmi' (common man). There was no mention to boost corporate India, which is fighting hard to save itself from the effect of global economic recession," added Anup.
"The good part about the budget is the scrapping of fringe benefit tax (FBT) and Commodity Transaction Tax. However, increase in income tax exemption limit for both women and others by Rs.10,000 each hardly matters," said Srinibas Prusty, another IT professional.
"It's a budget to make the vocal middle class people quiet. I appeal to the government to revise the tax structure which in turn should become a dream budget for the people," he added.