Exemption to Excisable Goods supplied to Government Departments
GOVERNMENT has exempted the following goods
(a) Scientific and technical instruments, apparatus, equipment(including computers);
(b) Accessories and spare parts of goods specified in (a) above and consumables;
(c) Computer software, Compact Disc-Read Only Memory(CD-ROM), recorded magnetic tapes, microfilms, microfiches;
(d) Prototypes
from the whole of excise duty, when supplied to Departments and laboratories of the Central Government and State Governments, other than a hospital, subject to the conditions that:
(i) The manufacturer produces at the time of clearance, a certificate from the head of the institution in each case, certifying that the said goods are required for research purpose only.
(ii) The aggregate value of prototypes received by an institution does not exceed fifty thousand rupees in a financial year.
This notification is certain to be embroiled in controversy in the days to come. "Laboratories' is understandable as far as "research" is concerned. But obtaining a certificate of "research" being conducted in "Departments" is going to be a tall task. And shouldn't "head" in relation to a "Department" be defined. The existing notification 10/97-CE (which has been amended now) mentions that in relation to an institution, the Director thereof (by whatever name called) is the "Head". And shouldn't there be any stipulation that the goods shall not be transferred or sold by the Department/laboratory for a period of five years from the date of installation, as stipulated for a ‘Research Institution'. By the way, computers and the like supplied to Government departments would also be eligible for exemption as they are used in "research" - after all, generating those tons of mindboggling statistics is also "research'. Need for "defining" research!
Notification No. , Dated: October 01, 2013