Introduction
India signed the ITA (Information Technology Agreement) on 25th March 1997. This agreement is an umbrella agreement under WTO, aimed at expanding world trade in information technology products. Through this agreement, the member countries agree to eliminate the basic customs duties on all IT products that are listed in the attachments A, and B of the agreement (page 2 clause 2 (a) & (b)).
Tariff Data
The tariff data applicable for individual countries can be extracted from the following website – “Get tariff data“. Some items listed here have tariff binding agreed to by a “bound rate” – the commitment not to increase a rate of duty beyond an agreed level. Once a rate of duty is bound, it may not be raised without compensating the affected parties. Each item in this list is identified by a “Harmonised System” – World Customs Organization’s system of code numbers for identifying products. The codes are standard up to six digits. Beyond that countries can introduce national distinctions for tariffs and many other purposes. The excel database containing the list of all bound tariffs at HS 6-digit subheading level for India can be downloaded from here – “India’s bound tariffs database“. Some items of Chapter 85 (IT products) with bound tariff rate as “Zero” is listed in the following table.
