Budget update: MAIT wins

BANGALORE: The zero per cent duty regime as per WTO, proposed for 2003 has

been postponed to 2005.

"The local manufacturers has urged to postpone the zero per cent duty

regime to 2005 instead of WTO proposed 2003. I have decided to postpone this to

2005 looking at a growth for the hardware industry of the country," said

the finance minister in his budget speech.

This was proposed by MAIT to the finance minister before the budget.

The duty on hardware components has been fixed at five percent and custom

goods at 15 per cent. Basic duty on cellular and pagers has been increased to 10

per cent.