‘Service tax should not rise any further’

As the gong of budget is about to strike, The DQ Week asked industry topnotch to share their expectations. Satya Prabhakar, founder and CEO, Sulekha.com talks about the critical position of SMBs and service tax is already having deep impact on the entire ecosystem.

An increase in service tax from an already very high 12+% adversely and significantly affects small to medium businesses whose cost of marketing and service procurement increases dramatically. Most SMBs are not sophisticated enough to make full use of service tax credit so an increase in service tax only increases their cost of doing business. We hope the government keeps the SMBs, the biggest and most powerful generators of economic growth and employment, in mind before taking any steps in increasing service tax.