New Delhi, July 6 (KNN) To promote local manufacturing of electronic products, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced enhancement in customs duty on Split ACs, CCTV Camera, IP Camera, DVR, NVR as well as their chargers. This is a major boost for local manufacturing of these products, said Dr. Ashish Saurikhia, Coordinator (Policy and Research) of Electronic Industries Association of India Secretariat.

This would really benefit domestic manufacturing if the industry increases value addition and components as well as sub-assemblies of these products are manufactured in the country, he added.

He stated “ELCINA supports the withdrawal of List 20 from Srl. 427 of Customs Notification 50/2017 thus imposing import duty on some large volume components such as Ferrites, Switches, Connectors, microphones, relays and more. This will give a fillip to the electromechanical segment of components.”

Import duties have also been enhanced on some auto electronics parts and signaling equipment which will give additional protection to this industry segment, said Saurikhia.

Relief under Section 35AD of Income Tax Act to manufacturers of Solar Photovoltaic Cells, Lithium Ion Batteries, Servers, Laptops and Solar Charging Equipment for EVs is an important positive step.

However the Electronics sector had requested that the entire sector be covered under 35AD which has not been done, said Saurikhia while reacting to the budget.

The Finance Minister must consider this request and at least provided this benefit to all ICT products and their inputs covered under ITA-1 and allowed for import at zero duty. This is a welcome step and ELCINA looks forward for similar benefits to be extended to other prominent electronic goods and especially high value added products such as components & ATMP units.

ELCINA is hopeful that some incentives may be offered for the component manufacturing sector in the near future as Components are the back bone of Electronics manufacturing value chain.