The free lunch is over many exemptions are to be withdrawn
The Government proposes to withdraw a large number of exemptions, may be to simplify the Tariff but in the process, certain items which should not be taxed at all will get to be taxed.
Customs
++ An educational film if so certified by AIR or DD was exempted but now if you want to see an educational film, you may as well pay for it.
++ The press was enjoying too many free goodies like cameras and computers and they never had the good sense to write good about the government. So suffer you reporters and pay duty for your imports especially those snoopy cameras to trap unsuspecting politicians.
++ The amateur radio operators (HAMS) who poke with their help when all communication fails, have been such a nuisance that they bring the truth and so they are condemned with duty.
++ The UGC enjoyed a very high status as the controller of higher education in India. They enjoyed exemption for the magnetic tapes imported by them for use in computers. May be they must have stopped availing the exemption and so it is going to be withdrawn.
++ Even the Customs are not spared. X-Ray Baggage Inspection Systems and parts if imported for anti-smuggling operations or for bomb detection will lose the exemption.
Excise
++ Tooth powder is the poor mans substitute for tooth paste, but is that good reason to exempt it?
++ There was a strange exemption - Plastic materials reprocessed in India out of the scrap or the waste. Could material manufactured outside India be taxed in India? Thankfully this exemption is going.
++ Pressure cookers are going out of the exemption with a whistle.
++ Sharpen your brains, not your pencils and if you want to buy a pencil sharpener, be ready to pay excise duty!
++ Heard of a bicycle valve? And it has some parts too and now the valves and the parts are out of exemption. So are bicycle pumps, their parts and the bicycles themselves.
++ A broom is good for sweeping and as a weapon; the mighty broom is good source for revenue. No exemption.
++ A ball point pen has a refill and if you keenly observe, the refill also has certain parts like the tip, the ball. Tip of the ball point pen is not too small to be excised.
++ The humble pencil? Will the parts of a pencil be separately taxed?
++ With frequent power cuts and with no power in many villages, the kerosene lamp is very popular and in the days to come their use is certainly going to grow. Why not make some money?
++ Research in IIT, IISc, and Universities are not bad and excise is not against research as long as no exemption is claimed.
You have two months time to tell the Government your views on withdrawal of these exemptions.