|
Working its way towards protecting the interests of channel community,
Progressive Channels Association of Information Technology (PCAIT) has
successfully pushed the government to bring down the VAT slab on UTP Cables and
Patch Cords to 4%. Earlier it was 12.5 per cent.
With this circular being issued by the department of trade and taxes - the
VAT on UTP cable, patch cords, fiber cable, telephone cables and even computer
cables now stand at 4%. This is likely to reduce the cost of these components
and the distributors are also likely to act accordingly.
"It is a big win for the association and the overall channel community
of this region. The government has just issued a circular on this front, so it
will take sometime for the changes to actually happen, but we have conveyed this
message to our members as well as the concerned distributors. We are hopeful of
a positive response from them," informed, Rajiv Kumar, Director, Proactive
Data Systems and part of the PCAIT team responsible for handling issues like
this.
With an to become an industry voice for the channel community - PCAIT started
working on the issues related to tax structure and got in touch with Delhi
government as well as the empowering committee for VAT. More importantly, PCAIT's
strategy to work in a focused manner has paid well.
"PCAIT has specific members working for specific areas. This approach
has helped us streamline the activities of the association, as a result we are
in a better position to address issues like this one," he added.
It is interesting to note that sales tax personnel do not have a 'harmonized
systems nomenclature' (HSN) for deciding on the tax structure of goods and
this causes most of the problems for the trading community. However, the same
HSN is closely followed by the customs department.
With more and more people coming forward to highlight issues with the
taxation of IT products, this is slowly going to change. "One good thing
for the industry is that the government is now opening up on these issues. Now,
as we bring these type of issues to the fore, we are likely to see this
nomenclature being followed in part by the sales tax personnel," he
explained.
While this issue has been addressed, it is just the beginning as the
association is already working towards similar issues for products like routers
and switches as well. "We are acting as an industry voice. So if there are
concerned people with such issues, we would continue to highlight such issues
and work towards solving them," informed, RK Malhotra, President at PCAIT.
It is its close proximity to the seat of governance and a will to act in a
united way that is acting as a catalyst for PCAIT to push these issues forward.
The association is positive that these issues once adopted in Delhi on the
regional front–would
afterwards be promptly taken by other states and regions as well.
"This kind of positive response from the government side is quite
encouraging to us as an association. We only hope that this decision will be
replicated to other states of the country as well," Rajiv added.
ZIA ASKARI
Page(s) 1
| 
