New Delhi, March 1: The finance minister’s decision to impose 12% excise duty on computers has vertically split opinions in India’s largest computer hardware association, MAIT (Manufacturers Association for Information Technology).
Domestic and foreign PC makers, both members of MAIT, have divided ranks with HP, Dell, Acer and
Lenovo dissociating themselves from MAIT’s ‘official’ support to the new duty.
Interestingly, Nasscom, at loggerheads with MAIT, is opposing the duty. Nasscom president Kiran Karnik said, “At a time when the trend is towards lowering of PC prices, it’s a retrogade step. The move to impose a duty is detrimental to IT penetration in India. We will urge the government to take it back.”
Rajendra Kumar who is also the vice president for HCL Infosystems heads MAIT. MAIT on Tuesday had issued a statement supporting the 12% duty.
Hewlett Packard’s vice president Ravi Swaminathan said, “We strongly dissociate ourselves from MAIT on this view. We also manufacture PCs in India. There is no inverted tariff structure as claimed by MAIT.’’
| Maran to take up the issue with FM |
| Corporate Bureau
New Delhi, March 1: Union minister for IT and communications Dayanidhi Maran on Wednesday said that he would represent IT industry's demand to roll back 8% excise duty on packaged software announced in the Budget. Software majors from Microsoft to Infosys have opposed the move. |
