India’s Manufacturers Association of Information Technology (MAIT) has asked the government to do away with an 8% import duty. The levy was announced in the federal budget for 1998/99 (April-March) on June 1, to provide a level playing field for domestic PC firms compared with multinational ones. MAIT says it will not serve that purpose. It says this levy, coupled with the falling value of the Indian rupee, has forced manufacturers to increase their prices. The beneficiary of the levy, says MAIT, will be the smuggled or grey market, which could gain by almost 48%t. The government has said that it would look into the matter.
