MAIT calls for 8% uniform excise duty

CIOL Bureau

BANGALORE: MAIT has recommended reduction of the excise duty on all IT

products to be reduced to eight percent from the existing 16 percent, to

address the rampant menace of gray markets.

"To ensure that IT reaches the grassroots level in India, there is a pressing need to bring down the prices

of IT products. MAIT has a single point agenda for the forthcoming Union Budget - reduction in excise duty

to 8 percent (or 6 percent if the Government adopts the Excise duty structure as

recommended by the Kelkar Committee) from existing 16 percent." said Vinnie

Mehta, Executive Director, MAIT.

To rectify the inverted tariff structure that can arise due to the WTO's IT

agreement, MAIT has recommended that there be NIL customs duty

on all capital goods for IT, electronics, telecom manufacturing and NIL

customs duty on all raw material inputs including dual usage

items.

MAIT has also suggested that sales of all items, as specified in the list of

ITA, manufactured in the EHTP be considered towards fulfillment of exports

obligation. Currently, this is limited to items that already attract nil

customs duty. This measure is expected to provide the necessary transition

period for the industry to scale up to global competition. For this, the

government needs to introduce self-declaration based periodic processing

model, no physical controls and all conciliation of data/duties to be post

clearance.