Demonetisation: Excise duty exemption on Point of Sale device manufacturing till March 2017

New Delhi: The duty exemption for making PoS devices, which are used for electronic payments at malls and shops, will remain valid till March 31, 2017, government said today.

In order to promote a 'less cash' economy, the government had yesterday removed 12.5 percent excise duty and 4 percent SAD (Special Additional Duty) on PoS machines and goods required for their manufacturing.

"To further reduce the cost of such devices and thereby encourage digital payments, the government has exempted such devices from Central Excise Duty. Consequently, these devices will also be exempt from additional duty of customs (commonly known as CVD) and special additional duty of customs (commonly known as SAD)," a finance ministry statement said.

These exemptions will be valid till March 31, 2017.

Since the announcement of demonetisation of 500 and 1,000 rupee notes on November 8, the government has laid increased emphasis on promoting digital payments.

Point of Sale (PoS) devices are used for cashless transactions for making payments. They can also be used for disbursing cash.

Currently, PoS devices do not attract any basic customs duty. To encourage domestic firms to manufacture such devices, all requisite raw materials have also been exempted from excise duty, and consequently from CVD and SAD.

The exemption from these levies would make domestic PoS devices cheaper by about 16.5 percent. Almost 90 percent of them are currently imported.