Bangalore, May 20 - The government has not been able to provide clarity on the definition of software exports for over a year now and it is causing inconvenience to the industry, Infosys founder and Chief Mentor N R Narayana Murthy said today.

In apparant reference to the perception of policy paralysis, Murthy said he had tremendous faith in Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is an 'excellent minister' and an 'excellent person'.

"But," he said, "it has been a year now since we requested clarification on the definition of software exports and for various reasons the officers have not been able to provide clarification." 

This situation is causing inconvenience to the software and services industry that has exports of over USD 70 billion, Murthy told reporters here.

"I hope that an extraordinary individual like Pranab Mukherjee will ensure that a quick clarification is provided on the definition of software exports," he added.

Last year, Parliament was informed that the Income Tax Department has slapped a demand of over Rs 450 crore on software giant Infosys Technologies for wrongfully claiming tax exemption on onshore services by declaring them as software exports.

Onshore software development is the practice wherein Indian companies send their software engineers on short assignments (3-6 months) to companies based in Europe, the US, and other nations. PTI