ISA on union budget 2012-13

BANGALORE, INDIA: PVG Menon, president, India Semiconductor Association (ISA), on the union budget:

“ISA broadly welcomes the budget with it’s thrust on accelerating overall GDP growth from 6.9 percent to 7.6 percent. We welcome the thrust given to areas like infrastructure development, skill development, encouragement of R&D, and the focus on helping SMEs.

“However, we view with concern the increase in service tax and the increase in excise duty on certain items, which are traditional consumers of the electronics and components industry in India.

“We would have liked to see some initiatives being announced for the promotion of the domestic Electronics Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) industry, which has a potential to grow to $400 billion by year 2020. We are also looking forward to the final policy as well as implementation details of the new National Electronics Policy as well as the National Telecom Policy, as related to ESDM sector.”