— PHOTO: S. SUBRAMANIUM

CUSTOMER FOCUS: Union Minister of Communications and IT, Dayanidhi Maran, along with Klaus Luft (left), Member of Dell's board of directors, Dick Hunter (second from right), Vice-President (Customer Support), Dell, and Romi Malhotra, Managing Director, Dell International Services India, inaugurating the customer care centre in Gurgaon on Friday.

GURGAON: With income tax concessions for Software Technology Parks of India scheduled to expire by March 2009, the Union IT and Communications Minister, Dayanidhi Maran, on Friday said he had appealed to the Finance Ministry to extend the tax holiday for the software industry.

"Our Ministry has been proactively supporting growth of the IT and ITES industry through positive changes in the tax regime. We have already appealed to the Ministry of Finance to extend the tax holiday for this industry beyond March 2009,'' he said. Mr. Maran said India had generated about $8.4 billion export revenues in the ITES sector in 2005-06.

The IT Ministry was working with various State governments to introduce basic computer education in schools in rural and semi-urban areas, Mr. Maran said adding that, "we have to increase the penetration of IT to every part of the country.''

The Minister said many State governments were planning to introduce IT in various departments, which would enable people to transact business with the government in a simple and easy manner.

Inaugurating Dell's customer care centre here, Mr. Maran said more IT penetration across the country would lead to greater transparency in transactions.

The Gurgaon centre is Dell's fourth one in India after Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chandigarh. Dell will increase the headcount to 1,000 by the end of this year from 800. — PTI

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