MAIT, the apex body of IT manufacturers has welcomed union government’s latest initiative announced in the interim budget FY2014.
The body has appreciated the reduction of excise duty on all goods falling under chapter 84 and chapter 85, including computers from 12% to 10%, excise duty (ED) restructuring to spur domestic production of mobile handsets.
Domestic manufacturers of mobile handsets will be allowed to pay an Excise Duty of 1% in case CENVAT on inputs and capital goods used for manufacturing is not availed. For all imported mobile handsets, the CVD now is 6%.
Since the above measures are effective only upto 30-06-2014, it remains to be seen whether the same will be continued beyond that date by the new government post the elections slated in May.
A proposal for Rs.1000 crore transfer to the NSD (National Skills Development) Trust for skill development is also laudatory, which will go a long way in employment generation.
Further, the proposal to make an initial contribution of Rs.100 crore to the corpus of the Ministry of MSME’s “India Inclusive Innovation Fund” will immensely benefit the grassroot innovations in the small sector.
FM in his vision for the future for promoting manufacturing has proposed certain measures like minimum tariffs protection, MAIT noted.