Online education is a fast growing global growth arena, both in formal education and vocational training. We hope that the Government will introduce measures to ensure a level playing field for the highly regulated Indian online education and training companies against the much larger funded global players who are entering the Indian market aggressively, in an unregulated manner as far as Indian taxation regime is concerned. Further, specific measures should be drafted to help make education and skilling more affordable to the masses.
Skill India and Digital India are two key and highly ambitious initiatives of Government and in the Budget 2016, we expect specific Indirect tax rebates for the companies and its partners who are working towards making these initiatives a success.
Government has set an ambitious target of skilling 500 million people by 2022. In a country where less than four per cent of the population is formally skilled, the Finance Minister needs to substantially increase fund allocation to the sector to draw youth to the skilling programmes. They should also spell out incentives and policy framework to boost the start-up sector by announcing a tax rebate and allocating more funds for the development of the sector.
The Goods and Services Tax is another much awaited Indirect tax reform, which will boost the economy. We are expecting a firm roadmap from the Government for its implementation. We also hope there would be changes in the Income Tax policy frame that will allow us to get quick refund for the excess taxes paid.
(The writer is Rahul K Patwardhan, CEO, NIIT limited)