New Delhi: The Supreme Court judgement designating packaged software as 'goods' for the purpose of sales tax could slow down the speed of penetration of PCs in the country and encourage piracy of software, Nasscom said today (Nov 5, 2004).

"The long-range scenario will not be affected by the judgement. Immediately, however, it may impact the price paid by the user and this could affect the speed of penetration of PCs in the country and also give an impetus to pirated software," Nasscom president Kiran Karnik said.

"We are yet to obtain a copy of the judgement to ascertain whether all kinds of software would be liable to sales tax or whether it is restricted to "off the self" software. However, we are aware of the move to integrate the tax on all goods and services, and the movement towards VAT (Value Added Tax)," he said.

Nasscom is the apex representative body of the Indian software and services companies.