Nasscom urges Centre to reimburse "paid leave" given to staff during lockdown

Hyderabad: IT and ITeS industry body Nasscom has urged the Centre to reimburse the payroll cost of employees who were on "paid leave" on account of any COVID-19 related lockdown measures till March 31, 2021, among other concessions and facilities.

According to a memorandum, covering issues related to various ministries also, submitted to the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the apex body of the Indian IT industry also urged the government to exempt IT-ITeS establishments from payment of statutory bonus for FY 20202021 and allow cross utilisation of SEZ and STPI locations for Business continuation Planning (BCP) scenarios.

The body requested the FM to allow expenses incurred by companies in enabling Work from Home (WFH) for its employees as an eligible business expense. Currently such expenses are classified as perquisites as a result of which employees are liable to pay tax.

"Reimbursing the payroll cost of employees that have been placed on "paid leave" on account of any COVID-19 related lockdown measures till March 31, 2021, the Nassom requested in the memorandum saying, "This will help ease the financial burden and will ensure no job losses.

The novel coronavirus pandemic has led to the disruption of several global value chains and the Indian IT- ITeS industry is an integral part of many of these. It has necessitated a sharp re-look at the future of the industry in the short to medium term, it said.

A former office-bearer of Nasscom said the US government last week announced USD 349 billion under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) to be given as "forgivable loan" to small businesses to pay their employees during the COVID-19 crisis and India can also do something in similar lines to small businesses.