February 18, 2015: The ESDM industry can look forward to another benefit with regards to the ‘Make in India’ campaign as the government is planning to announce incentives in the upcoming budget to encourage manufacturing of electronic hardware including mobile phones and laptops.
The Department of Electronics and IT (DeitY) has already pitched for a package incentive by suggesting Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to provide 10 year tax holiday for manufacturing of mobile handsets, tablets, laptops, desktops, telecom equipment, solar cells and medical electronics. To broaden it, the tax holiday is suggested for fresh investments in a block of 15 years in special economic zones, domestic tariff area, export oriented units and Electronic Hardware Technology Park. Besides this, the DeitY has also recommended that the special additional duty from inputs and components should be removed, a 5 per cent interest subsidy scheme for the electronics industry and differential excise duty structure for laptops and desktops.