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NEW DELHI: The Union Budgetâ€™s out in the open and itâ€™s time for you to take a look at the highlights once again. It is celebration time as P Chidambaram announces major sops in different sections. Following are the major excise proposals, announced in the Union budget for 2004-05 on Thursday. (a) AED (GSI) means Additional duty of Excise levied under Additional Duties of Excise (Goods of Special Importance) Act. (b) RSP means Retail Sale Price Major Proposals about Central Excise duties are the following: All Changes would come into effect immediately. A. Education Cess An Education Cess is being levied on excisable goods manufactured in India. It shall be leviable @ 2% on the aggregate duties of excise leviable on such goods. The credit of cess paid on inputs and capital goods shall be available as credit for payment of cess on the final products, as per the provisions of Cenvat Credit Rules, 2002. B. Broadening Of Tax Base And Move Towards A Mean Cenvat Rate (i) Excise duty of 8% has been imposed on following items: 1) Contact lenses. 2) Playing cards. General SSI exemption is available to these items. (II) Excise duty on following items has been increased from 8% to 16%. 1) Cakes and pastries. 2) Plastic insulated ware. 3) Vacuum flasks. 4) Scented Supari. 5) Pre-fabricated buildings. 6) Laboratory glassware. 7) Clocks and watches of RSP not exceeding Rs.500 per piece. 8) Monochrome television receivers. 9) Populated printed circuit boards for monochrome television receivers. 10) Imitation jewellery. 11) Candles. General SSI exemption would be available to all these items. (III) Excise duty on matches made in semi-mechanized and mechanized sectors, has been changed from 8% without Cenvat credit, to 16% with credit. (IV) Excise duty has been raised on iron and steel of chapter 72 from 8% to 12%. (V) Excise duty of 16% has been imposed on following items: 1) Specified parts of pre-fabricated buildings such as blocks, slabs, concrete beams and stairs. 2) Parts of clocks and watches of RSP not exceeding Rs.500 per piece. General SSI exemption would be available to all these items. Relief Measures 1) The RSP limit for excise duty exemption on footwear has been raised from Rs.125 to Rs.250 per pair. The exemption will now be available only if RSP is indelibly marked or embossed on the footwear itself. 2) Excise duty has been reduced from 16% to 8% on gas stoves of RSP not exceeding Rs.2000 per unit. 3) The value limit for excise duty exemption on pens and refills of ball point pens has been raised from Rs.100 to Rs.200 per piece. 4) Parts of pens and parts of refills of ball point pens have been exempted from excise duty. 5) Computers have been exempted from excise duty. Stand alone Central Processing Units (CPUs) will also be eligible for the exemption. Parts captively consumed in the factory of the manufacture of computers have also been exempted from excise duty. 6) Excise duty on non-alcoholic beverages, such as chocolates and malted food drinks, falling under chapter 18 or 19, prepared and dispensed through vending machines, has been exempted. Agriculture 1) Tractors of heading 87.01 have been exempted from excise duty. Part captively consumed in the factory of the manufacture of tractors have also been exempted from excise duty. 2) Milking machines and dairy machinery of heading 84.34 have been exempted from excise duty. 3) Excise duty on branded and packed preparations of meat, fish and poultry has been reduced from 16% to 8%. more PTI VJ ANS VJ 07081740 D 4) Excise duty on food grade hexane has been reduced from 32% to 16%. 5) Hand tools of heading No. 82.01 have been exempted from excise duty. 6) Specified plantation machineries have been have been exempted from excise duty. Textiles 1) The Cenvat Scheme has been made optional. There will be a mandatory excise duty only on man made fibres and filament yarns (including textured yarns) 2) Man made staple fibres i.e. tows and staple fibres and wastes thereof would continue to attract duty of 16%. 3) However, waste of manmade fibres, other than those arising during the course of manufacture of manmade fibres or filament yarns attracting mandatory duty, has been exempted. 4) Polyester filament yarns, including polyester textured yarns would continue to attract duty of 24%. 5) Excise duty on other synthetic and artificial filament yarns has been increased to 16% 6) All other textile goods e.g. spun yarns, grey or processed fabrics, garments, made-ups and textile articles, of chapters 50 to 63, have been exempted from excise duty provided no credit under the Cenvat Credit Rules, 2002 is taken. The exemption is optional. For those opting to pay duty, the rates of excise duty will be as follows: (a) all textile goods made of pure cotton, not containing any other textile material - 4%. (b) Other textile goods - 8%. Those opting to pay duty will be eligible to avail Cenvat credit. More PTI VJ ANS VJ 07081748 D 7) Textiles and textile articles, presently attracting ''Nil'' tariff rate, would continue to do so, except for silk yarn, yarn spun from silk waste, woven fabrics of silk and silk waste (of heading Nos. 50.04 and 50.05). For these items an optional duty of Nil (without Cenvat credit) or 8% (with Cenvat credit) has been prescribed. The tariff rates for these items have been suitably amended. 8) All textiles and textile articles falling under chapter 50 to 63 have been fully exempted from duties under Additional Excise Duty (Goods of Special Importance) Act and Additional Excise Duty (Textile and Textile Articles) Act, wherever applicable. 9) Manufacture of polyester filament yarns on job work has been excluded from the purview of notification No. 214/86-Central Excise. Health 1) Existing concessional rate of excise duty of 16% to ambulances for Government run hospitals has been extended to all ambulances. 2) Rehabilitation aids such as talking books, talking calculators, talking thermometers, Braille writers, Braille computer terminals have been exempted from excise duty. 3) Excise duty exemption available to diagnostic kits used for detection of Hepatitis B has been extended to diagnostic kits used for detection of all types of Hepatitis. 1) Newsprint in reels has been exempted from excise duty. 2) Existing excise duty exemption for naphtha/natural gasoline liquid (NGL) used for production of ammonia and synthesis gas, for use in manufacture of heavy water, has been extended to naphtha/NGL used in production of steam supplied to heavy water plants for manufacture of heavy water. 3) A sunset clause has been introduced in case of area based exemptions for Sikkim, Uttranchal and Himachal Pradesh so as to provide that the exemptions would be available only to those new units which are set up or existing units which are substantially expanded and commence commercial production on or before 31.03.2007. 4) Specific rates of excise duty on colour television receivers, prescribed in case RSP is not declared or is not correctly declared, have been withdrawn. Colour television receivers will now uniformly attract excise duty of 16%. 5) In the exemption scheme for specified units manufacturing tobacco products (other than cigarettes and biris) in the North East Region, the condition for investing the excise duty amount per quarter within six months from the end of the quarter has been relaxed. The amount can now be deposited in an escrow account with a condition that the amount would be invested in the North East Region within two years of the deposit in the said escrow account. (I) Changes in rates of abatement have been made consequent to changes in excise duty rates: 1) Abatement on gas stoves of RSP not exceeding Rs.2000 per unit, has been reduced from 40% to 35% 2) Abatement on scented supari, has been raised from 30% to 35% 3) Abatement on plastic insulated ware has been raised from 40% to 45% 4) Abatement on vacuum flask has been raised from 35% to 40%. (II) RSP based assessment has been extended to monochrome (black & white) television sets with an abatement of 35%.

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Computers and mobiles, chocolates and dairy products, all are going to cost less.

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