Basic customs duty on all computer parts other than printed computer boards (PCB) has been cut down to five per cent from the existing 10 per cent, while that of all storage devices has been rationalised at five per cent. Duty on CD-ROMs has been shot down from 15 per cent to 10 per cent.

Customs duty on chips rationalised

Basic customs duty on all computer chips and micro-assemblies has been rationalised at five per cent, while that of all telecom transmission equipment including switching apparatus has been reduced from 30 to 25 per cent.

Machinery for semi-conductor manufacture exempt from duty

Machinery for semi-conductor manufacture has been exempted from basic customs duty, while customs duty on diodes, transistors, and other semi-conductor devices have been reduced from 20 to 15 per cent.

10% I-T on income from GDRs

It was proposed to levy only 10 per cent income-tax on income incurred by way of dividends or long-term capitalgains from global depository receipts of any Indian information technology company bought by employees in accordance with the employees stock option plan.

Software under Sec 35-2ab of Income-tax Act

The budget also proposed to include computer software under Section 35-2ab of the Income-tax Act, making it eligible for 125 per cent weighted income-tax deduction till 2005.

Untouched

Colour data display tubes, micro motors, parts of colour picture tubes and colour picture tubes have been left untouched in the budget.

Telecom parts reduced to 20%

Parts of telecom equipment, pagers and GSM phones have been reduced from 25% to 20%. Optical fibres would be less expensive following five per cent cut in the customs duty.

Y2K relief to business sector

In order to assist the business sector overcome the Y2K problem, finance minister Yashwant Sinha proposed some relief in the Budget. All expenditure incurred in making their Y2K compliant will be considered as revenueexpenditure in the next financial year. DD allocation at Rs 406.98 croreThe budgetary allocation for Doordarshan is Rs 406.98 crore as against Rs 385.04 crore in the current year, showing an increase of just Rs 21.94 crore as against an increase in allocation by Rs 46.65 crore to Rs 490.02 crore over the revised estimates for 1998-99. The expected revenue receipts from Doordarshan is Rs 254.72 crore as against Rs 61.8 crore in radio.

Operational expenses for Doordarshan will be Rs 632.38 crore as against Rs 497 for AIR. The budgetary allocation for the other departments of the I&B is Rs 226.08 crore. In addition, there is provision for investment in the National Film Development Corporation to the tune of Rs 6.1 crore (as against Rs 6.5 crore in the current year) and in the Broadcasting Engineering Consultants (India) Ltd of the order of Rs 1.76 crore (as against 0.94 crore in 1998-99).