Computer and smartphone geeks can rejoice. The government does not intend to raise customs duty on smartphones, tablets and computers as part of its move to curtail import of ?non-essential? items to check the current account deficit (CAD).
Economic affairs secretary Arvind Mayaram said on Friday no further increase in import duty on non-essential items is likely as the government has already raised customs duty on gold, silver and platinum to 10%. ?Gold, silver, platinum are what we believe as non-essentials. We have put curbs on that. I don’t think we need any more curbs,? he said.
In the case of these electronic products, there is hardly any scope for increase in duty as these enjoy zero-duty benefit under IT agreements with the EU, which cannot be unilaterally revoked.
The only products on which import duty could be raised are consumer durables like air conditioners, fridges and high-end television sets. Even on these items, the quantum of increase cannot be too high as the gap in tariff between products imported from India’s free trade agreement (FTA) partner countries and the others could lead to possible abuse of treaty.
A higher duty differential could lead to products from non-FTA partner countries finding their way into India under the guise of imports from FTA partner countries, said sources privy to discussions in the government about ways of lowering the CAD.
Now nearly half of all world trade in IT products is in computers, telecom equipment and fibre optics, ATMs, digital cameras and semi-conductors.