No excise duty on pre-loaded software on computers: SC

The Supreme Court has ruled that no excise duty has to be paid on software loaded on computers. The Excise Department argued that operational software was a part of the PC, and therefore duty should be paid on the total value of the computer.

The apex court also rejected suggestions from the department that PCs with license software should not be compared with a disc, floppy or CD-ROM available in the market separately.

The three-judge bench headed by Justice Santosh Hegde, which upheld the appeal by Acer India and other PC makers, explained that computer and operational software are different marketable commodities. The excise duty on computers is 16% whereas that on the software is nil.

CYBER MEDIA NEWS 

MUMBAI