Budget 2013 highlights for electronics and semiconductor industry

The semiconductor fab gets special attention in India budget 2013. The chip makers/foundries who want to set up a semiconductor fab in India can now import equipments to make semiconductor chips at zero percent custom duty. Setting up a fab costs Billions of $s. The lion share of spending is in buying semiconductor manufacturing equipment. Its good news for companies who want to set up fab in India and also companies like Applied Materials, ASM Lithography, Tokyo Electron, KLA Tencor, Nikon and many semiconductor manufacturing equipment vendors. The other areas of interesting announcements for electronics and semiconductor industry in budget 2013 (which is now called ESDM) includes: A. Companies investing 100 crore or more in plant and machinery during the period 1.4.2013 to 31.3.2015 will be entitled to deduct an investment allowance of 15 per cent of the investment: Most of investment in high tech manufacturing benefit from this due to heavy investment required, mainly fab investors. B. Duty on Set Top Boxes increased from 5 to10 percent: Promotes manufacturing of local set top boxes. C. Duty on mobile phones priced at more than Rupees 2000 raised to 6 percent: Promotes manufacturing of smart phones in India. D. Since in India lot of electronics companies fall in SME sectors, the budget announcements for SMEs in 2013 includes: 1. Benefits or preferences enjoye...