In his pre-Budget consultative meeting with stakeholders from the IT (software/hardware) sector,Finance Minister Arun Jaitley pointed out that India’s competence in IT software is recognised globally. The electronic market in India is one of the largest in the world and is expected to reach $400 billion in 2020. Meanwhile, the IT sector representatives sought the Government support in view of rising protectionism and anti-globalisation forces. To further boost electronic manufacturing in the country, suggestions were made to extend the duty differential scheme to all ITA goods, specifically for personal computers (desktop, laptop). A proposal requested that list of CPE goods should be make comprehensive for Duty Differential Scheme to further promote and implement ‘Make in India’ initiative. Representatives said the scheme must continue to exist in the GST regime. To create an ecosystem for electronics and IT hardware manufacturing, proposal for a ‘Component Trading Hub’ was discussed. A representative from a robotic firm requested incentives to boost the robotics sector in country which is at present non-existent.

(The Hindu)