CII in a pre-Budget memorandum to the government, has said "halving the excise duty would constantly give a boost to the sector to increase the PC penetration and improve connectivity, apart from enabling the people to buy computers and access information at affordable rates."

The chambers has recommended the government to maintain a minimum of 10 per cent differential between input parts, components and finished goods for a vibrant manufacturing base of IT hardware in the country.

Tariff on IT items should be brought down in stages to zero level, CII said adding that PC should be listed in the `employee benefits' for tax exemption to achieve the national objective of creating an IT literate population.

The chamber also recommended that a section of the Income Tax Act should be amended for including donations towards IT and Internet related peripherals for the schools.

"Reduction or removal of the taxes on IT hardware will increase the affordability and facilitate increased usage of IT, thus leading to accelerated national productivity of growth," CII said.

IT is a driver of productivity, CII said adding that IT should be given the status of infrastructure as it had the potential to contribute significantly to the growth of domestic productivity. CII said there was a dire need for building up network capacity in order to move up the path of realising digital opportunity.

"Pro-competitive telecommunication and Internet policies were essential for promoting the deployment of infrastructure to enable the public in realising the digital opportunity," it said.

Referring to the government's privatisation in the telecom sector, CII said an effective framework was needed to promote and safeguard competition in the infrastructure sector and that special measures were required to accelerate the national and regional deployment of Internet infrastructure services.

Broad segment of the population needed access to the communication tools and systems, CII said adding a pro-competitive regulatory environment could encourage this development.

Access to basic communication infrastructure and enabling services like reliable electric power and increased number of service providers would be the first step towards making Internet available to people in cities and hard-to-reach rural pockets.

CII said nations could not thrive in a globalised world without well educated workers and therefore emphasis should be on imparting quality general education and technology training for the entire cross section of thesociety.

(PTI)