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Ludhiana dealers unhappy with state govt

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DQW Bureau
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The dealer community of Ludhiana is extremely unhappy

with the way the state government of Punjab has been conducting itself with

regards to IT. According to Association of Computer Entrepreneurs (ACE), the

government has been virtually neglecting the IT industry--especially in Ludhiana.

ACE would be completing its five years in later half

this year. The association, which was started in 1996, has come a long way in

lobbying for the problems of dealers in Punjab, in addition to Ludhiana. ACE

already has more than 120 registered members and the figure is improving each

year. Besides Ludhiana, ACE has four branches (which it calls as chapters) in

other cities of state--Jalandhar, Patiala and Amritsar. Membership fee of the

association is Rs 2,200 annually.

ACE


Established in: 1996


Total members: 130 approx


President: Vinod Loomba


General Secretary: TS Channa


PRO: Adish Bamba




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According to Vinod Loomba, President, ACE, the main

objective of the association was to bring all the members under one roof. The

association has been instrumental in conducting various seminars and exhibitions

on IT subjects. Meeting, once in two months is a regular feature with the

association and office-bearers claim that more than 50 percent of the members

turn out for these meetings.

Major achievements



One of the major achievements of ACE has been to lobby

for bringing down the sales tax in Punjab. The association had been quite

instrumental in bringing down the sales tax from 8.8 percent to 4.4 percent.

"Punjab was losing so much revenue on account of high sales tax. It took us

more than two years to explain this to state government and finally got it

reduced," said a proud Loomba.

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Grievances



ACE is frustrated with the way state government is

turning a deaf ear to its demand to implement the IT policy in the state. Loomba

said that the date of the notification of policy was March 15, 2000 but till

date it has not been implemented. "All the problems related to octroi and

slow growth of IT in the state would be taken care of once policy is

implemented." But dealers say that there is no relief in sight since after

repeated assurances from Satpal Saini, Minister of State for IT, nothing has

been done. "If there is any further delay in the implementation of the

policy, it would of no use since the policy is valid for a period of two years

from the date of notification," he said.

ACE has made several representations to the state

government in this respect. The policy has certain clauses which will give much

needed boost to the IT industry in Punjab. The policy talks about various

subsidies--generator set subsidy, subsidy on IT in Gurmukhi script, special

subsidy for human resource development in IT, subsidy on pollution control

equipment etc.

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Loomba explained that the policy had various subsidies

to offer. "In generator set subsidy, all the IT units located in the state

would be eligible for the generating set subsidy of 25 percent. In subsidy on IT

in Gurmukhi script, subsidy shall be admissible to the units engaged in the

development of IT in Gurmukhi script amounting to five percent of the total

turnover every year subject to a maximum of Rs 5 crore per year for a period of

three years."

Apart from this, there are other clauses like price and

order preferences, facilitation service, investment incentive etc. ACE is

pushing the government to work fast on the implementation front. "On April

26, 2001, we invited the IT Minister and Director of Industry to discuss the

benefits of the IT policy. We are still waiting for the response from their

front," said Loomba.

STP in Ludhiana



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ACE is also trying hard to lobby for setting up of a STP

in Ludhiana. A STP is present in Mohali, near Chandigarh, which the dealers feel

has not evoked much of a response. They feel that STP makes more sense in

Ludhiana since it works as a IT hub in Punjab and therefore needs more help in

terms of infrastructure from the government. "Major IT benefits and

concessions should come to Ludhiana instead of Mohali which has a total

population of 35 lakh and also the purchasing power of people in Ludhiana is

much greater," pointed out Adish Bamba, PRO, ACE.

Because of this dealers feel, there are no good IT jobs

in Ludhiana. "People are spending so much in IT education but because of

the lack of infrastructure, there are no jobs in the market," he conceded.

ACE feels that only because of lack of help from the

government's side that most of the dealers are only dealing in hardware. They

feel that there should be some effort from the government side to convert the

city into a software hub because every dealer wants to diversify into software

exports.

Even the telecom facility in Ludhiana is said to be at

its worst. "Connectivity problem in the city is so acute that till few

months back people used to get the connectivity from Jalandhar," said Bamba.

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