In order to promote a 'less cash' economy, the government had yesterday removed 12.5 per cent excise duty and 4 per cent SAD (Special Additional Duty) on PoS machines and goods required for their manufacturing.
"To further reduce the cost of such devices and thereby encourage digital payments, the government has exempted such devices from Central Excise Duty. Consequently, these devices will also be exempt from additional duty of customs (commonly known as CVD) and special additional duty of customs (commonly known as SAD)," a finance ministry statement said.
Since the announcement of demonetisation of 500 and 1,000 rupee notes on November 8, the government has laid increased emphasis on promoting digital payments.
Point of Sale (PoS) devices are used for cashless transactions for making payments. They can also be used for disbursing cash.
Currently, PoS devices do not attract any basic customs duty. To encourage domestic firms to manufacture such devices, all requisite raw materials have also been exempted from excise duty, and consequently from CVD and SAD.
The exemption from these levies would make domestic PoS devices cheaper by about 16.5 per cent. Almost 90 per cent of them are currently imported.