GST to create jobs in IT, says Kris Gopalakrishnan

Bengaluru: Thanks to the GST regime, India is likely to create significant opportunities in the IT sector, an industry veteran said here on Friday.

Speaking to the media at the Confederation of Indian Industry, Infosys co-founder and executive vice-chairman Kris Gopalakrishnan said, “Goods and Services Tax can create significant opportunities for the Information Technology (IT) industry.”

Mr Gopalakrishnan added that GST will create job opportunities, improve productivity and ease of doing business in the country, while also increasing the government’s tax revenues.

He believes that the increased tax revenues will be infused into the economy by the government. “According to estimation, GST will add to 2 to 4 per cent growth in the GDP,” said Mr Gopalakrishnan.

The country needs to create 20 million new jobs every year and GST, according to Infosys co-founder, will create 10,000 to 1 lakh jobs in the short term period or in its implementation stage.

Talking about goods such as alcohol and petroleum products not falling under the GST ambit, Mr Gopalakrishnan said that every product should be added to the GST basket. Once all the stakeholders get used to the new regime, it will become easier to make more products and services taxable.

“Companies are moving from organised sector to unorganised sector. The transition has already begun. And we will slowly move from a shadow economy to a more transparent economy,” he said.

Kamal Bali, MD, Volvo India, who was also one of the panelists at the CII event, said that the government has added 60 per cent of the products and services are taxable under the new rule. Once the government widens the tax-base, there will be reduction in prices.