'Package for electronics and IT hardware soon'

New Delhi, Nov 4: The government today said it is readying a package of fiscal and other incentives for electronics and IT hardware manufacturing sector to make the industry globally competitive and to attract more FDI.

Besides, the step is aimed towards bringing down the prices of the end products, to reduce production cost, to step up volumes to task advantage of economies and efficiencies of scale and to move towards much lower taxation levels in the next 3 to 5 years.

The Commerce Minister Kamal Nath has said the consumer electronics sector, which is the main stay of the Indian electronics industry, contributes about 35 per cent of the total electronic hardware production in India and colour TVs are the largest contributor to this sector.

This sector is also currently undergoing technological revolution, Mr Nath added.

The Indian electronic sector faces stiff challenges in the international markets, as it has to overcome infrastructure constraints leading to high operational costs. There is also a need for forward and backward integration of hardware and software sectors to take advantage of India's burgeoning software sector, the Minister stressed, adding, India had been meeting more than half of its electronics hardware requirements through imports.

UNI