IT and ITeS industry body Nasscom has urged the Centre to reimburse the payroll cost of employees who were on “paid leave” on account of any Covid-19 related lockdown measures till March 31, among other concessions and facilities.
According to a memorandum covering issues related to various ministries also, submitted to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Nasscom also urged the government to exempt IT-ITeS establishments from payment of statutory bonus for FY21 and allow cross utilisation of SEZ and STPI locations for business continuation planning (BCP) scenarios. It requested the FM to allow expenses incurred by companies in enabling work from home (WFH) for its employees as an eligible business expense. Currently, such expenses are classified as perquisites as a result of which employees are liable to pay tax.
Nasscom also requested the FM to reduce the corporate I-T rate to 15 per cent from the existing 22 per cent for all companies for FY21.