ZDNet India : Budget 2004-05: Weak links, contentious issues

Good: Eliminating excise on PCs.

Bad: Eliminating excise only on PCs. This benefit given in isolation will adversely affect the local manufacturers of components such as monitors, UPS, and motherboards as importing will become cheaper than buying locally.

..."Computers are being fully exempted from excise duty from the present 8 percent. Parts/components manufactured and captively consumed in the factory of production of computers are also being fully exempted. Computer for the purposes of the exemption would include a central processing unit (CPU) cleared on a stand-alone basis as well as when cleared together along with a monitor, mouse, and keyboard. However, accessories such as monitor, keyboard, mouse, modem, UPS, web camera etc. cleared separately would not be covered under this exemption." ....