Sunday, Nov 28, 2004
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By Our Special Correspondent
HYDERABAD, NOV. 27. The Union Minister for Information Technology and Communications, Dayanidhi Maran, came out in support of hardware manufacturers' stand on the `inverted duty structure', and assured to take it up with the Finance Ministry. He was addressing members of hardware manufacturing industry at the `India e-Hardware Summit 2004' organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Andhra Pradesh here on Saturday. In a brief unscheduled address through video conferencing facility, Mr. Maran assured to take up all issues concerning the industry with the Finance Minister. Their fears and concerns were genuine over what would happen to the industry after 2005 when the tax structure would undergo drastic changes, he said. He said "I am not promising the moon. But we will take all issues to the notice of the Finance Minister", adding "I will fight with you shoulder to shoulder on the inverted duty structure. After all prevention is better than cure". The industry was against inverted duty structure, as it exempts finished imported products from duty, while components would continue to be taxed. Ramesh Datla, Chairman, CII, Andhra Pradesh, said several issues needed to be addressed if the growth targets and requirements of the hardware industry by 2008 were to be met. He wanted the inverted duty structure on WTO-ITA (Information Technology Agreement) items, including equipment to be rectified, the entire value chain to be made zero duty. To achieve the software export target of $87 billion by 2008, hardware requirement would be $50 billion. But for this to happen, several issues have to be addressed. The industry wants a clearcut hardware development policy, classification of all units under WTO-ITA as export oriented units (EOUs) or comparable to it. Excise duty at 50 per cent of prevailing rate for all WTO-ITA items that are domestically produced, rectification of sales tax disparity, income tax rebate on R&D expenditure, and introduction of green channel passbook system for speedy clearance of imports and exports, were the other issues. M. M. Pallam Raju, Chairman, Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT, R. G. Deshpande, President of Electric Components Industry Association (ELCINA), N. K. Goyal, President of Telecom Equipment Manufacturers Association were among the small group that participated in the video conferencing.
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