Centre Hikes Import Duty On Some Communication Parts To Up To 20%

The centre on Thursday in a bid to check rupee's plunge and ballooning current account deficit (CAD) hiked import tariffs on some select communication components that include base stations, by up to 20%.

In a notification, the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) said the new increased tariffs will come into effect from October 12. This is the second round of hike effected by the centre in more than 15 days time.

The import tariffs on loaded, stuffed or populated printed circuit boards of all the items except mobile phones, optical transport equipments and base stations is increased to 10%.

For machines used for the reception, base stations, conversion and transmission or regeneration of voice, images or other data, including switching and routing apparatus other than modems, voice frequency telegraphy, digital loop carrier systems and multiplexers, duty has been increased from 10% to 20%.

Further, the hike in tariffs has also been announced in case of some of the inputs required in the communication industry such as Printer Circuit Board Assembly (PCBA).

On 26 September, to curb rise in CAD which has widened to 2.4% of the GDP in the April-June quarter of FY19, government raised import tariffs on some 19 non-essential items that include ACs, refrigerators, washing machines (less than 10 kg) to 20%.

The rupee in Thursday's session also recorded a new low of 74.50 per US dollar but later recovered to close at 74.12.

Earlier on Thursday, an official in a leading business daily report was quoted as saying, "Rupee, Balance of Payments, CAD are the main worries, we have strategy in place to tackle the situation. We will take action at opportune time on these issues".

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