The Hindu Business Line : Maran targets 200 m phones by `07

The Minister of Communications and IT, Mr Dayanidhi Maran, with the Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission, Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, at a round table conference on `Development of telecom equipment manufacturing sector' in the Capital on Monday. - Kamal Narang

New Delhi , Sept. 13

THE Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Mr Dayanidhi Maran, has set a target of at least 200 million telephones by 2007 for which the country would require equipment worth Rs 1 lakh crore.

Speaking at the Round Table Conference on Development of Telecom Equipment Manufacturing Sector, Mr Maran said that the major telecom equipment manufacturers need to introduce new products and technologies and upgrade their networks constantly to provide more value-added services.

The Minister reminded the indigenous telecom equipment manufacturing sector to be more competitive to face the growing challenges in the light of World Trade Organisation's (WTO) Information Technology Agreement which envisaged zero duty by 2005.

Mr Maran said the Department of Telecom (DoT) has already approached the Ministry of Finance on the problems the indigenous manufacturing sector would face.

The industry has been demanding tax exemption and duty relaxation on raw material and components.

Tax holiday for at least 10 years, simplification in customs clearance, labour laws and bringing IT and telecom on par with Special Economic Zones were among the others issues.

Dr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, said that the protective approach is not conducive for the growth of indigenous manufacturing sector but in order to have a level-playing field with importers there was a need for correction in the duty structure in telecom manufacturing sector.

In his key note address, Mr Nripendra Misra, Secretary, DoT, said that most of the foreign manufactures based in India still resorted to importing.

He said that despite major policy initiatives such as abolition of licence regime and rationalisation of custom duty, the growth rate has been near static or even negative in the last few years.