The government on Thursday hiked the import duty on certain communication items, including base station and digital line systems, to 20 per cent.
This is the second round of import duty hike after the government on September 26 increased import duty on 19 items, including household refrigerators and air conditioners, as it looks to cut non-essential imports to check the widening Current Account Deficit (CAD).
Finance Ministry has raised custom duty from 10 per cent to 20 per cent on telephone sets, including telephones for cellular networks or for other wireless networks.
The Finance Ministry has also levied 10 per cent custom duty on smart watches, optical transport equipment, combination of one or more of Packet Optical Transport Product or Switch (POTP or POTS), Optical Transport Network (OTN) products, Soft switches and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) equipment.
Apart from these, 10 per cent custom duty also levied on Carrier Ethernet Switch, Packet Transport Node (PTN) products, Multiprotocol Label Switching Transport Profile (MPLS-TP) products and Multiple Input/Multiple Output (MIMO).
In a notification, the CBIC said the Central government was satisfied that the import duty leviable on goods falling under Chapter 85 of the First Schedule to the Customs Tariff Act, 1975, should be increased and that circumstances exist which render it necessary to take immediate action.
Chapter 85 deals with electrical machinery and equipment, sound recorders, television image recorders and their parts.
The duty on base station and digital line systems has been doubled to 20 per cent from 10 per cent. The duty hikes would be effective from Friday.
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