Hike customs duty on import of electronic goods to boost local production

According, to the study undertaken by Assocham and EY the industry is expected to touch $ 75 billion by 2017 from $ 61.8 billion in 2015. The government is working to push infrastructure development, locomotive and energy which poses a significant opportunity for rapid expansion of the domestic electronics industry.

The 2017- 18 budget will be first of its kind for several reasons. It will be for the first time the budget will be one comprehensive one, including the railway budget and it is a month before it is introduced. The Indian economic condition was conducive for majority sectors owing to the government policies. The Make in India vision, GST, Seventh Pay Commission for the government employees and good monsoon have stirred growth opportunities for all players. In the run-up to this budget, India was registering a rapid gross domestic growth of 7.6 percent, but it has been hindered at the end of 2016 due to the consequences of demonetisation.

The government’s call for demonetisation is certainly a good call which will propel transparent flow of money and fight corruption, but in short run, the impact is clearly visible from the sluggish growth of the industry in the last month of the year. 

The on-going talks on tax reforms got watered due to the demonetisation policy. Thus, we expect the policy to be finally featured in the budget. It will surely be a big boost to many business houses as it would reduce the tax slabs. In line with Government’s Make in India vision, we are hopeful that the basic customs duty on the imports of full units (ie, completely built unit or CBU) is hiked and is reduced on parts. This would curb the inflow of imports of full units and encourage local manufacturing.

Hopefully, budget 2017-18 should bring in pro-industry policies which would bring back the momentum that got stalled due to the demonetisation policy. 
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Anurag Sharma is the director of AKAI India