SC: No excise duty on SW loaded on computers

Three-judge bench upheld computer and operational software are different

marketable commodities

Indian PC manufacturers have another good news to cheer for. Supreme Court

has ruled that no excise duty is payable on software loaded on computers. The

Excise Department had argued that operational software was part of the PC and

therefore duty should be paid on the total value of the computer.

The apex court also rejected suggestions from the Department that PCs with

license software should not be compared with a disc, floppy or CD-ROM available

in the market separately.

The three-judge bench hea-ded by Justice Santosh Hegde, which upheld the

appeal by Acer India and other PC makers, explained that computer and

operational software are dif-ferent marketable commo-dities. The excise duty on

com-puters is 16 percent whereas that on the software is nil.

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