Budget 2016 – Here’s what Telecom Gear-makers Want

Local telecom gear-makers want the Modi government to offer ‘infrastructure’ status to them. They also want Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to extend tax sops under Section 35AD for domestic manufacturers.

The Telecom Equipment Manufacturers Association of India (TEMA) that represents local telecom product makers wants the government to levy a 5% cess on telcos to build a corpus for funding local telecom R&D and IPR creation.

Key TEMA members include Bharti Teletech, C-DoT, Bharat Electronics, Sterlite Technologies, HFCL, Lava Mobiles, ITI, Birla Ericsson Optical and United Telecom among others.

"Infrastructure status to domestic telecom equipment manufacturing companies complying with PMA provisions will help the industry to benefit from the incentives," the TEMA chairman Emeritus N K Goyal has said.

TEMA has also asked for an extension of tax sops under Section 35AD to local telecom gear makers complying with PMA norms. This is expected to boost local manufacturing of electronics and telecom gear. It has also sought imposition of 25% duty on telecom/ICT products under the `Others' category that are now being imported at zero duty.

Image credit: Indiatimes