Indian techies told to prepare for tax sprint

National Goods and Services Tax means everything needs tweaking India recently introduced a national goods and services tax (GST)* and the nation's techies are now scrambling to prepare for its implementation. Each of India's states previously levied their own GST at their own rates, which rather complicated matters for …

[HollyHopDrive]

Well, if the Indian techies I work with are anything to go by, something will be delivered by the deadline. Either an excuse for not delivering or something entirely different from what was specified.

Either way, good luck guys!

[WibbleMe]

I feel so sorry for them, next they may be told to pay tax on the freelance work they do in the UK

[bombastic bob]

What will this do to outsourced tech support?

I'm no fan of tech support outsourced to India. my experiences have ALL been negative. This is primarily because I _HATE_ boilerplate phone support and JUST want them to fix THEIR problem [and 99.9999% of the time, it _IS_ _THEIR_ problem]. But of course their rules say "do not deviate from boilerplate or you're fired" most likely.

NOW... when this new tax goes into being, will these phone tech support companies have to pass this cost along to all of the companies that outsource to them? Will this result in me talking to people in CHINA instead?

I still haven't gotten used to the thick accents over the phones, even though I'm pretty good at deciphering accents, and I've worked with many people from India in the past without difficulty understanding them. Ah, well, I guess I'll just have to re-train...

[MotionCompensation]

Re: What will this do to outsourced tech support?

when this new tax goes into being, will these phone tech support companies have to pass this cost along to all of the companies that outsource to them?

Part of the goal is to reduce the cost of locally produced goods and services, by preventing 'tax on tax'. If the system works as intended, the Indian call centers will become cheaper. On top of that, in many countries, you don't have to pay this type of tax on goods exported, I'm not sure if that's the case in India.

Then again, this whole brexit thing has decreased the value of the British pound so much that British companies may soon be unable to afford outsourcing to India. Sometimes you get what you wish for.

[hattivat]

Re: What will this do to outsourced tech support?

"Will this result in me talking to people in CHINA instead?"

Very unlikely, given that Chinese salaries are skyrocketing and already above Eastern European rates for comparable positions (average wage is still lower, but that's because far more Chinese are still stuck toiling the rice fields than there are Romanians stuck farming potatoes), and therefore many times higher than Indian salaries.

[Version 1.0]

"administrivia"

+1 - that pretty much sums up the trials of doing business in India.

[Anonymous Coward]

Reminds me of a failed tax grab by Massachusetts 3 years ago. In late July the pols slapped a sales tax on IT services, effective August 1, first payments due Sept 20. All in summer of 2013 - talk about a mad rush.

Basically the whole tech industry went on strike. The due date was delayed a month, then the tax was repealed.