Excise on TV to be on MRP basis

NEW DELHI, July 20: Excise levy on television sets may soon be calculated on the maximum retail price (MRP) basis. The department of revenue is already looking into complaints of large-scale under-valuation in these brown goods.

Finance ministry sources said that the revenue authorities have commenced an exercise to ascertain details of those TV makers whose products show a big difference between the assessable value (the value on which excise is levied) and the listed maximum retail price at the dealers’ end.

Levy of excise on the basis of the maximum retail price is applicable at present only to cosmetics and toiletries, where excise duty is levied on 50 per cent of the maximum retail price.

Story continues below this ad

The government is considering to widen the scope of the provision to footwear, detergents and other sectors.

The MRP will be high in products where the mark-up, dealers’ margin and advertisement expenses are abnormally large.