New Delhi: The Finance Ministry has exempted a special kind of yarn used to manufacture bulletproof jackets meant for the armed and police forces from
excise and customs duties.
Manufacturers of bulletproof jackets say this will enable them to use the saved money for R&D and bring out better quality products.
The move will help save excise duty of 10.30 percent and customs duty of 26.85 percent on ballistic grade aramid (heat-resistant and strong synthetic fibres) yarn.
The Central Board of Excise and Customs under the Finance Ministry has also exempted ballistic grade aramid fabric used for manufacture of bulletproof jackets for police
and armed forces from excise duty.
The fabric already enjoys customs duty exemption.
The exemption is applicable to the yarn "if the goods are used in the manufacture of ballistic grade aramid fabric required for the manufacture of bulletproof jackets for supply to the armed forces of the Union under the Ministry of Defence or the police forces of the states or the Union Territories," CBEC said in a notification.
The eligible clients for the bulletproof jackets also include the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force (ITBP), Special Services Bureau (SSB),
Border Security Force (BSF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and National Security Guard (NSG).
"The exemption in duty will help us in putting the money saved into better research and development for the bulletproof jackets. The final product will be better," said a bulletproof jacket manufacturer, which supplies its products to the
Ministry of Home Affairs.
PTI
