Anwar Shipurwala,
Executive Director,
MAITÂ
The issue on Inverted duty structure by indigenous manufacturers has been taken care of several measures. Special Additional Duty (4%) on all inputs/components used in the manufacture of Personal Computers (laptops/desktops) and tablet computers is being exempted. Duty structure on imported and manufactured computers has been brought at par by withdrawing exemption of CESS (0.3%) on imported computers. E-book readers have been exempted from BCD (7.5% earlier), benefitting education and other sectors.Â
 The launch of broadband connectivity at village level, with Rs 500 crore allocation is likely to boost penetration and e-governance. The Government has proposed a fund of Rs. 100 crores for setting up virtual classrooms as Communication-Linked Interface for Cultivating Knowledge (CLICK) and online courses.
SMEs have been given a lot of emphasis. The Rs. 7060 crores that have been allocated for Smart City projects will significantly push ICT deployment and ICT device penetration.
Government has also initiated a number of actions including increasing FDI limit in defense and insurance sectors which will improve the investment climate. The FM has initiated a discussion with states to work out GST-related implementation issues.
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