Confed asks distis to stop billing products to vendors

Chennai: Agitated by the lack of support from vendors on the back-end service tax issue, Confed-ITA has taken a strong step that could bring business to a standstill in the state. The association working for the welfare of the IT associations in Tamil Nadu has asked national distributors to cease billing products to the vendors starting Feb 24, 2009, until they start receiving support from vendors.

“We haven't received any information from the vendors despite giving them enough time. Since they are in the wait and watch mode, Confed has taken this extreme step,” informed a source on the condition of anonymity.

The DQ Week learned that the executive committee of Confed, which gathered in Chennai last night on an emergency basis, unanimously took this decision after consulting with major regional distributors as well as sub-distributors, and has conveyed the message to distributors immediately.

“This is turning out to be a huge issue among the channels, as majority of them survive in the trade on back-end payments. We were expecting some sort of support from vendors. However there has been no communication from their end till date, which has irked the channel to a great extent and forced us to take this extreme step of banning their products,” the source further added.

Confed remained tight lipped about this development and refused to divulge details to the media. When contacted, PN Prasad, President, Confed-ITA, refused to comment on the issue.