The Indian IT industry is attractive content with finance minister Arun 
Jaitley’s Budget presentation as he announced removal of Special Additional Duty on IT products. It has been a giant relief to home manufacturers of personal computers and tablets as the issue of inverted duty structure has been addressed.
The industry has suffered from this issue since a long time. But the release is partial as exemption from levy of SAD has been limited to inputs or components which are used in the manufacturing of personal computers, like laptops and desktops, and tablet computers. Hence, the SAD exemption will not benefit instantly as it cannot be implemented in case of other ITA goods which also suffer from the inverted duty structure issue.
The exemption and its extension is not very clear too in case of sub-components. The IT industry was looking forward to SAD exemption in all goods including inputs, components, accessories, their parts as well as sub parts when they are imported for manufacturing of ITA goods. The wish list of the IT industry has been paid heed by the Narendra Modi government, partially though.
Intel India MD Debjani Ghosh has tweeted, “Great to see removal of SAD on IT products n reduction of tax on technical services. Will enable IT industry in India do more!” (sic) Greyhound Reseach chief analyst and CEO Sanchit Vir Gogia posted via his Twitter handle, “Great move on reduction of Special Additional Duty Taxes – solid move to help increase domestic Manufacturing.” (sic)
