Union minister of state for commerce and industry D Purandeswari has urged Union finance minister P Chidambaram to promote domestic manufacturer of IT hardware and software and restrict imports by enhancing import duty. Purandeswari said that an estimated 250 million cellphones are being imported, while at the same time the majority of the computer software is from the US.
The commerce and industry minister alleged that foreign companies have formed a cartel called Business Software Alliance and said that thousands of crores of foreign exchange is being sent out of the country for import of these items.
This amount cannot be easily calculated as US companies have Indian offices and sale proceeds are transferred out as royalty, she said and urged the finance minister to promote indigenous production by earmarking a budget of Rs 1,000 crore that would eventually help reduce the current account deficit (CAD).
‘Promote domestic IT hardware, software units’
