The government has notified the policy giving preferential access to local telecom equipment manufacturers, say news reports.
With this, government agencies and departments will have to purchase between 50 and 100 per cent of their entire equipment requirement from local manufacturers.
The policy has been introduced by the government to tackle any likely security threat to the country’s communication network by using imported products. Security agencies have already expressed their concerns regarding spyware and malware embedded in imported products.
The policy also aims to encourage the local manufacturing of telecom equipment in the country, which in turn could lead to a reduction in import bills on account of import of foreign telecom equipment.
In the policy, the government has set targets for value addition for each of the products. According to the policy, telecom products which do not meet the minimum value addition criterion for a particular year will be treated as imported telecom products and will have to pay a required amount of import duty and other fees.
