Budget 2015: IESA urges government to set up Electronics Commission

India’s semiconductor industry has said that the absence  of an Electronics Commission has been deeply affecting the ESDM players and the ecosystem, and so there’s an urgent need to set up an ‘Electronics Commission’ in India. India Electronics & Semiconductor Association (IESA) has urged the government to set up Electronic Regulatory Commission (with industry representative) similar to the Telecom Regulatory Commission in India which will act as a One Stop Shop for implementation of policies, regulations, approvals, resolving issues, etc for the electronics companies in India; and to provide a fair and transparent policy environment which promotes a level playing field and facilitates fair competition. [caption id=“attachment_52825” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  quapan/Flickr[/caption] The Commission thus should make all efforts to encourage the growth of the ESDM sector in the country and will ensure that the country will play an important role in the emerging world information society. In addition, IESA demands that the status of “deemed export” should be granted to ITA1 products/components manufactured and sold in India. “This would enable the benefits of drawback, advance authorization and refund of output excise duty paid by manufacturers by availing credit of input taxes paid on components imported and made in the country and paid for in cash for value addition. Domestically manufactured electronic products (DMEP) for the purpose of conferring the status of deemed export on them should be identified by using domestic value addition norms, where the threshold progressively increases over the years,” said IESA Chairman Ashok Chandak. The industry body also said that the government should apply additional import duty on NON ITA 1 products that would help promote localisation of products. Other than than, IESA demands: fast track DRM transmitters installation to promote Digital Radio’s and Car audio systems designed and manufactured in India; implement smart metering in all states electricity boards; implement smart card based national ID card projects and contactless payments; standards for cyber security, smart grid in India, smart lighting, home automation; fast track cyber security; and fast track NOFN and Broadband thru cable network. To boost domestic production there is a need to mandate government procurement for electronic products manufactured in India. The existing PMA policies framed should be implemented at an immediate basis to leverage electronic products manufactured in India. There is also a need to make Government purchases of Indian product mandatory where Indian designed ICs have been used in order to promote the globally competitive growing fabless ecosystem in India. There has been restriction on imports of used electronic equipment which is treated as hazardous waste. However, lots of value addition and R&D activities takes place through these used imported electronic equipment. To give a boost to the R&D activities in the ESDM sector, the government should consider removing these restrictions. Need for correction of anomalies in the inverted duty structure. Presently due to the Inverted Duty Structure imports of finished goods are encouraged and the import of semi-manufactured goods and components are discouraged which can be further used for manufacturing completed products in the country where substantial value addition can take place. Lastly, IESA urges the government to speed up investment proposals approvals and disbursement of funds/Incentives to fast track the manufacturing expansions.