With the budget round the corner, Telecom Equipment Manufacturers Association of India (TEMA) today demanded grant of infrastructure status to the domestic telecom equipment manufacturing companies complying with PMA (Preferential Manufacturing Access) provisions that will help the industry to take benefits of the incentives given to the infrastructure sector.
It also proposed to extend Income Tax Act Section 35 AD benefits to domestic telecom equipment manufacturing companies which are complying with the PMA provisions, to encourage electronics and telecom equipment manufacturing in the country.
TEMA further said to introduce 5% cess on user of telecom services (service providers) to create a corpus for supporting R&D for technology development in telecom sector. In last year’s budget, the Government had levied duties on non-ITA products in the last Union Budget (FY 2014-15), where some of the telecom products have been brought under the duty regime.
There are many telecom /ICT products which are being imported into the country under ‘OTHERS’ category at zero duty. The products falling under this category and are outside the scope of original ITA list, may suitably be reviewed and may be brought under the duty regime of about 25%.
