Custom duties cut expected: Assocham
New Delhi: Indian businessmen are hoping there would be a significant cut in custom duties and more measures taken to provide relief to farmers in the 2007-08 budget, a survey by industry body Assocham has said.

72 per cent of the 150 CEOs and MDs surveyed Assocham anticipate Finance Minister P Chidambaram may bring down the peak custom duty from 12.5 to 10 per cent, according to a Business Barometer (ABB) survey conducted by the chamber.

The survey also highlighted that almost all CEOs expect a positive step by the Finance Minister to boost bank deposits in the wake of skyrocketing inflation, while a cut in excise duty on crude oil in the forthcoming Budget is also expected.

About 90 per cent of respondents said they were hoping for higher budgetary allocations for the farm sector coupled with a package of duty cuts for food processing sector.

A majority of the CEOs are also expecting a cut in the corporate tax rate, applicable on foreign companies.

As many as 83 per cent of the respondents felt there could be a change in service tax rates since the road map for the composite GST (Goods and Services Tax) has already been laid, Assocham said.
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PC market growth at 25 pc
New Delhi: The personal computers (PC) market grew 25 pc in 2006 and total shipments crossed five million units in India during the period, according to the IDC India Quarterly PC Tracker for the fourth quarter of 2006.

In the overall Client PC (Notebooks and Desktops) market, Hewlett-Packard (HP) retained the top spot with a market share of 21 pc in terms of units shipped, followed by HCL at 14 pc and Lenovo at 9 pc the report said.

The notebook PC segment grew 104 pc year-on-year and touched one million unit shipments IDC said.

Purchases by the educational institutions, individual consumers or SOHO purchases increased traction from the SMB segment.

In the Notebook PC market, HP retained the top spot with market share of 38 pc in 2006 in unit shipments. Lenovo and Toshiba were at second and third spots with market shares of 17 pc and 10 pc, respectively.

In the desktop PC market, HCL and HP jointly shared the number one position in 2006 followed by Lenovo in the commercial desktop PC shipments category, while in consumer desktop PC shipments segment, HP led the market in 2006 followed by HCL and LG Electronics.

The study does not take into account the assembled desktops that comprise a large part of the sales.
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National policy for farmers to be ready by Independence Day
Coimbatore: A National Policy for Farmers would be in place on August 15, the 60th Independence Day of India, said agriculture scientist, Prof M S Swaminathan. He said the new national policy would find ways and means to raise farmer's incomes.

The policy would be placed before the National Development Council for discussions by Chief Ministers, as agriculture is a state subject. The CMs would later place it before the cabinet.
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