In a bid to make high cost conditional access system affordable to consumers, the government has withdrawn 16 per cent excise duty on set-top boxes.

An official notification issued on Tuesday said the excise duty had been reduced from 16 per cent to zero on domestic set-top boxes required for viewing pay channels under CAS from July 15.

Earlier, in May this year the government had slashed the import duty on set-top boxes by about 45 per cent.

However, the effective import duty cut from 50.8 per cent to five per cent is valid only till July 31.

The excise duty cut is not for a limited period as in the case of custom duty rebate, which was offered for easy availability of these boxes, as the domestic industry was not fully geared to meet the anticipated demand.

Along with the excise duty cut, government also reduced basic customs duty from 25 per cent to 5 per cent on certain components to be used in domestic set-top boxes.