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Software exempt from sales taxes in TN

The Tamil Nadu government, in an attempt to refurbish its image on the IT front, has followed neighbouring Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka in removing the four per cent sales tax on packaged software products.

This step comes soon after Microsoft decide to base its first development centre outside the US in Hyderabad over Madras after a great deal of deliberation.

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The local industry sees the step as being logical, one likely to reduce piracy. One of them said the exemption would make software cheaper and thus make it more likely that legal software would be used.

Others asked why should sales tax be charged when there aren't any import duties on software.

This is part of the aggressive IT policies the southern states have taken to woo investors.

Already, Tamil Nadu has provided Rs 50 million to the Tamil Nadu Institute of Information Technology and initiated a feasibility estimation fot the TIDCO-ELCOT joint venture Tidel Park, also intended to give IT a fillip in Tamil Nadu.

-Compiled from the Indian media

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