What's IT? Just chip in for Bangalore, forget the state

What's IT? Just chip in for Bangalore
New Indian Express

BANGALORE: Come September and a section of the Information Technology sector here triggers a boycott tsunami aimed at political shores.

The annual threat of the Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce (BCIC) has a thread of predictability.

The first time the CEOs effectively registered their protest was when they took broomsticks to sweep Hosur Road in the late 1990s.

That made national headlines and instantly such protests became the means to register their ire. The timing of this year's boycott is suspect.

Is there a political hidden agenda to dislodge Dharam Singh? This is the time of the year when the Congress does a performance appraisal of its governments in the states.

So, if you want Dharam out, shout about infrastructure and make sure Delhi listens. Now what are the grievances of IT companies?

Apathy tops the list. But do six roads and 10 sq km in Bangalore constitute the State? The government had a major problem in hand--the floods in North Karnataka.

Did IT companies help out or were apathetic? Now look who is speaking of apathy. Ok, apathetic the government was. But consider this: Karnataka has from the time of the JH Patel government nurtured and facilitated the growth of IT companies by providing them friendly policies and environment to grow and flourish.

These initiatives included a 10-year tax holiday, land at concessional rates, creating special zones for setting up IT parks and generating the technical pool required for the IT companies--such as starting of dozens of engineering colleges and technical institutes that produced thousands of engineers and skilled people.

Due to this encouragement, see how the City has grown. In 1991-92, Bangalore had just 13 IT units accounting for exports worth Rs 5.6 crore.

It now boasts of 1500-plus IT firms which together make exports worth Rs 27,600 crore a year.

That is 40 per cent of country's total software exports, which is just rising year after year. The growth recorded in 2004-05 was a staggering 52 per cent.

The UNDP survey places Bangalore in the fifth place in the world as a technology hub. It is also time to ask what the IT companies have done.

They do not pay income tax and most of them are export-oriented units. IT companies do not have to pay upper level of about 30% as corporate tax (this is huge and directly shows in the cash-rich balance sheets and this is something companies in other sectors would die for).

Let's assume the 10 IT companies (remember there are hundreds such) in a year have a combined turnover of about $5 billion (about Rs.25,000 crore)--and save--let's take an average of 20% tax that these companies do not pay. This amounts to a staggering Rs 5000 crore per year.

Multiply this in 5 or 6 years and you have Rs 25-30,000 crore!

Why can't companies chip in as part of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility)?

If one or even three companies adopt some of the major roads in Bangalore, the city could beat Singapore. Some IT companies are good at suggesting measures to the government.

Why not this be one? Having enjoyed so many benefits, is it not pay back time for the IT companies?

Are IT companies too not to blame for making a further mess of urban chaos?

Recent example in Koramangala of how IT and other companies have abused residential properties for their office purposes, converted drain storms into parking, made 100 people work in a place planned to take 10 people, park 100 vehicles where a provision for 5 was made.

Companies that created the chaos in the first place later blame the government/civic authorities for poor traffic management and bad roads.

And in their enthusiasm to blame the government for all the ills, the BCIC spokesperson also blamed the state government for ``poor services at the airport.''

This is hardly in the domain of the state government and it speaks volumes of the blame game the companies are playing.

IT companies and BCIC must contribute their mite to Bangalore, not just shout. Just log in.