In his speech at the inauguration of the hi-tech city in Hyderabad last month, prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had announced that the report was under Cabinet's consideration and would be passed soon.

However, sources told The Financial Express that it would take at least three to four weeks before the group of ministers can sit on judgement over the report as at least half a dozen departments and ministries are yet to formulate their opinion on the recommendations.

The report has recommended adoption of soft bonded IT (S-BIT) units scheme which seeks to turn India into a manufacturing haven for computer hardware and electronics as attractive as Malaysia, Philippines and Taiwan. The hardware panel of the task force had sought drastic lowering of the import duties on parts and components and various otherincentives such as combining the export production and local production and import through self-declaration and self-audit mechanism as prevalent in most south-east Asian countries.

Considering the nature and scope of the recommendations, opinion has been sought from a labyrinth of departments and organisations such as departments of electronics, banking, revenue, customs and central excise, expenditure and the ministries of labour, industry and commerce, besides Planning Commission and the Reserve Bank of India.

Out of these, only six departments including expenditure, revenue and DoE have so far sent in their comments to the Cabinet.

It is believed that the ministry of finance and the department of customs have written lengthy letters to the task force, seeking clarifications on several points.

When contacted, the task force member-convenor N Seshagiri said ``the delays are not due to any major opposition to the recommendations from any quarter, but because the report seeks a total paradigm shift inthe way things have existed in the country so far.''

Sources added that the customs officials have questioned the basis of allowing import by bypassing the department and merely on the basis of self-declaration forms. If allowed, this would pave the way for several other industries to demand similar regimes for themselves, they have pointed out in their comments.

Even the task force officials privately admit that S-Bit could lead to opening up a pandora's box and other sectors too might demand lower duties and similar incentives.

``Certain people in the bureaucracy fear this could lead to a chain reaction they might find themselves unable to cope with. Unlike the first task force report, the steps that need to be taken in this case would require a big change in the mindsets,'' admitted a task force official.

However, Seshagiri pointed out that since the recommendations had received full support from finance minister Yashwant Sinha, finance secretary Vijay Kelkar and the industry minister SikanderBakht, it was only a matter of time before things fell in place.

Though other task force members too denied reports of opposition to the recommendations, official sources indicated that the report was quite unlikely to receive a blanket approval from the Cabinet. The task force also realises that `a clause here or there' might have to be altered, or left out for being taken up at a later stage and its members seem mentally prepared for that.