NEW DELHI: The Union Budget for 2016-17 is expected to result in raising the prices of mobile phones as well as personal computers.
In his budget speech, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the exemption from basic customs duty, CV duty, Special Additional Duty on charger/adapter, battery and wired headsets/speakers for manufacture of mobile phone was being withdrawn and vary between four to 12.5 per cent.
But inputs, parts and components, subparts for manufacture of charger / adapter, battery and wired headsets /speakers, of mobile phone, subject to actual user condition was being exempted.
The exemption from Special Additional Duty (SAD) on populated PCBs for manufacture of personal computers (laptop or desktop) was being withdrawn and would go up to four per cent.
The exemption from SAD on populated PCBs of mobile phone/tablet computer being withdrawn and the concessional SAD on populated PCBs for manufacture of mobile phone/tablet computer was being imposed at two per cent.
The Excise duty structure on domestically manufactured charger/adapter, battery and wired headsets/speakers for supply to mobile phone manufacturers as original equipment manufacturer has been changed and will be between two to 12.5 per cent.
At the same time, the excise duty on inputs, parts and components, subparts for manufacture of charger/adapter, battery and wired headsets/speakers of mobile phone, subject to actual user condition have being exempted from 12.5 per cent at present.
Specified telecommunication equipment [Soft switches and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) equipment namely VoIP phones, media gateways, gateway Product/Switch (POTP/POTS), Optical controllers and session border controllers, Optical Transport equipment; combination of one / more of Packet Optical Transport Network(OTN) products, and IP Radios, Carrier Ethernet Switch, Packet Transport Node (PTN) products, Multiprotocol Label Switching- Transport Profile (MPLS-TP) products, Multiple Input / Multiple Output (MIMO) and Long Term Evolution (LTE) Products on which 10 per cent Basic Customs Duty was imposed in 2014-15 Budget has been excluded from the purview of the other exemptions also and goes up to 10 per cent.
The Basic Customs Duty exemption on preform of silica for manufacture of telecom grade optical fibre /cables has been withdrawn and will be 10 per cent.
The Minister said the assignment by the Government of the right to use the radio-frequency spectrum and its subsequent transfers being declared as a service so as to make it clear that assignment of right to use the spectrum is a service leviable to service tax and not sale of intangible goods, with effect from date of enforcement of Finance Bill, 2016. It will therefore be 14 per cent.
