Government has hiked import duty on certain communication items, including base stations, to up to 20 per cent. The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBIC) release today said, the increased duties would be effective from tomorrow.
This is the second round of import duty hike announced by the government in a little over a fortnight. The import duty has also been hiked on certain inputs used in the communication industry like Printer Circuit Board Assembly.
Import duty on populated, loaded or stuffed printed circuit boards of all goods other than mobile phones, base station and optical transport equipments has been raised to 10 per cent.
Duty has also been raised to 20 per cent from 10 per cent for base stations and for machines for the reception, conversion and transmission or regeneration of voice, images or other data, including switching and routing apparatus other than modems, voice frequency telegraphy among others.
On September 26, the government had doubled the import duty on 19 items, including air conditioners, household refrigerators and washing machines to 20 per cent.
