ST on computer cabinets down to 4% in Maharashtra

Maharashtra IT channels and especially TAIT (Trade Association of Informa-tion Technology) have a rea-son to rejoice as the sales tax on computer cabinets have been finally dropped from 15.3 to four percent. This develop-ment took place last week due to the efforts put in by the trade association TAIT. Association members CW Kadwatkar (Sec-retary) and Anil Jagasia have been running in and out of sales tax and the finance minister’s offices for the last six to seven months.

“Earlier cabinets with SMPS were charged a sales tax of four percent and the casings with-out SMPS were charged at 15.3 percent. Therefore, this encou-raged many dealers to take advantage of the situation and thereby make billings of all cabinets with SMPS. In August we had got the permission from the sales tax department and then we had to approach and get the approval from the Mantralaya. The problem with the government departments was that they associated the word cabinet with steel cup-boards. Therefore, we had to clarify and differentiate by adding the word computer before cabinet or casing. We had several meetings, which were as long as six hours with the finance minister,” said Kadwatkar. “Now traders will not have to procure cabinets from neighboring states like Gujarat which was a regular practice.”

In fact, distributors like Priya who were not pushing its Kry-pton range of cabinets, are relooking at this range of products.

Rajeev Jain, GM, Priya, said, “Now this develop-ment will give a lot of clarity on procedures and also remove future liabilities. Our cabinet business was slow because of this reason but now we will have a re-look at this range of products. It may not do big numbers but at least, improve by 10 to 20 percent.”

Mumbai channels are quite upbeat on this new develop-ment. Chetan Shah, Proprietor, Xpress Computers, and a lead-ing system integrator, said, “Now there is similar sales tax on all computer products, which improves business to a large extent. In Maharashtra there were huge imports of cabinets without SMPS because of the high sales tax.”

Nancy Sudheer