Zero duty on electronic products next year: Shourie

Srinivasa Rao Dasari / Hyderabad

Arun Shourie, the Union minister for disinvestment and ICT, has reiterated that the Centre was committed to implementing a zero-duty regime for the electronic sector, including IT, from the next financial year. Saying that the Centre had already made its commitment in this regard in the IT agreement at the WTO, he said that this would put India in a better leadership position in the electronics and ICT sectors.

In a brief chat with the media after inaugurating the third edition of GITEX HYDERABAD-2004 here, Shourie said the Centre has already reduced duties on many electronics and IT goods and will completely waive them from the next fiscal. Andhra Pradesh chief minister, N Chandrababu Naidu announced that the state was actively considering waiving sales tax on goods sold at the event from the next financial year in order to encourage and promote sales of IT products and services. Later, speaking to the media, Abdulla Qassem, the general manager of Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC), said that the event had been emerging as a major IT and ITeS show in this part of the world over the last three years. About 80 exhibitors are taking part in the event this year, up from 70 last year and 36 in the first year. “Our aim is to become an ideal business platform for companies to display latest technologies and launch new products and services. It was difficult to quantify the volume of business generated by companies at the event,” Qassem said.

Among exhibitors, companies like LCT Gulf find this event helpful to expand their presence in India. Talking to Express Computer, Rohit Puma of LCT Gulf suggested that more publicity was needed to promote the event. Amitabh Kumar Singh of Moser Baer India said: “We have participated in Bangalore IT.com and at an IT event in Delhi and GITEX HYDERABAD is catching up very fast and business response is also good.”

Though there was an increase in the number of participants (80 exhibitors, up 10 percent over the last event), what was lacking in the business environment during the event was enthusiasm amongst visitors, since most of them were software trainees and students.

‘Computer Shopper’ has also been added as a new component in the event, benefiting those who purchase IT products for their personal use.

The MoUs signed at the event included L &T Infocity’s MoU with the Andhra Pradesh state government for the allotment of 14.09 acres to develop 10 lakh sq. ft. of multi-tenanted buildings to house IT/ITeS firms; CDAC’s MoU with the state government in areas like grid computing, hardware design, embedded systems design, etc.; Kanbay’s MoU envisages setting up a development centre while Bank of America has decided to set up its ITeS centre here. The Aga Khan Foundation has also decided to set up its centre of excellence in education at the Hardware Park.