TDS on consulting services be reduced to 3% so that this will help in better cash flows.

The GoI can insist on 25% - 30% of all engineering consultancy assignments to be given to Indian owned firms.

- Sunil Srivastava, Managing Director, Barsyl

How do you assess the impact of the pandemic on Rail Sector?

Covid - 19 has impacted all facets of our life and business globally. The impact has been on many fronts in the rail sector. While design related the activities can be done through  Work From Home, this is not possible for physical on ground activities. With construction activities stopped, it has impacted the progress as well as revenues of the contractors as well as the consultants.         

The project owners now have to work out revised implementation plans and completion targets once construction begins. Barsyl has been impacted on various fronts; while some of the impact has been positive some not so. We had just about begun the concept of Work From Hom so the current crisis has forced faster implementation and adaption which is very good and all employees are enjoying it. The downside has been that on some of our major projects both in India and overseas we are unable to deploy our team thereby losing out on planned revenues.   

There is also uncertainty about how the clients will pay for our teams that have already been deployed on projects but are now forced to work from home. So all in all this financial year will be heavily impacted. 

Tell us on the challenges faced by the industry during COVID19.

Like any other industry the lockdown is brought unforeseen challenges to the infra industry too. All revenue cycles and cash flow planning has gone haywire. There is no clarity too about when this is likely to see some normalcy. All corporate big of small are worried about managing operations in the absence of visible revenue inflows. This is a challenge no business management school or guru has prepared the industry for. So it is wait and watch and most importantly conserve cash for operations as much as possible.

What are the steps initiated to overcome and sustain growth?

Work From Home is something not very popular in the infra industry but now all of us have been forced to adapt to this which is good and we have also adopted this concept whole heartedly. With almost half the year gone by the time some normalcy can be seen, it will be a huge challenge to look at growth.        

We are looking at Work From Hom as a new and cost effective way to run our business. We have also aggressively started pitching for projects all over the globe where as earlier we would do so only in select geographies.

what are the policies and reforms expected from the government?

I have been advocating the concept of Make in India for engineering consultancy business for some time now and feel this is the right time for the government of India to implement this. My expectation from the government of India' is that like in manufacturing, the government of India' can insist on 25% - 30% of all engineering consultancy assignments to be given to Indian owned firms this should not include Indian subsidiaries of MNC consulting firms.

With the government of India' slated to spend heavily on infrastructure development this can give a big boost to the Indian engineering consulting industry and make them strong to compete globally. The other policy reform I suggest is that the TDS on consulting services be reduced to 3% so that this will help in better cash flows as most of the consulting firms end up claiming refunds on IT which takes years to process as a result their profits get stuck in TDS. 

Also the government can look at the possibility of making GST payable only when firms receive the payment from clients, especially in the current crisis there are bound to be delays in getting payments from clients, so insisting on payment of GST on raising invoice will create huge pressure on cash flows and operations.

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