This has raised hopes that some of the recommendations might see the light of the day. Sinha had come in for criticism from the IT hardware industry for completely ignoring the proposals made by the task force in the Union Budget despite 24 of the 84 recommendations being related to the budgetary exercise.

Most of the provisions contained in the report have already been approved by six ministers who were asked to deliberate on it. The group of ministers held its first meeting in the last week of February, but it was not attended by the finance minister due to his preoccupation with the Budget.

``With all the industry associations having accepted the report in writing and the GoM also concurring with these recommendations, it is only a matter of time before the policy implementing the recommendations is announced,'' member-convenor ofthe task force and director-general of National Informatics Centre N Seshagiri said at a video conference in the Capital on Sunday.

However, it will not be an easy decision to make for Sinha as accepting the recommendations will mean drastic changes in the custom laws structure. The task force had recommended permitting imports under a self-declaration scheme. This has been strongly opposed by the customs and excise department who fear that if such a facility is permitted to the IT industry, many other sectors will also demand the same.

It is also not clear if Sinha would agree to alter the custom and excise duty structure on parts and components so soon after the Budget. According to estimates made by the Manufacturers Association of Technology, modification and rationalisation exercise in overall duty structure is likely to make personal computers dearer by three to five per cent.Seshagiri said a ministerial committee has approved recommendations of the National task force on information technology onhardware development. Even Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had declared recently that the recommendations would be implemented, he added from Pune, a press release said.

However, he said, if the recommendations were to be implemented, the whole structure of customs law would have to be drastically changed for one of the basic premises propounded in the report was that a unit requiring to import anything could do so under a self-declaration scheme.

The hardware panel had weighed all the pros and cons of the industry and made several recommendations of far-reaching consequence not only to the hardware industry itself but also to the electronics components industry in general, he added.

Intel buys Level One for $2.2 bn

NEW YORK: In its largest acquisition ever, Intel Corp had announced plans to buy Level One Communications for $2.2 billion in stock in an effort to expand Intel's reach into the fast-growing computer network equipment business.

Under the deal, each share of Level One (LEVL)would be exchanged for 0.43 share of chipmaker Intel (INTC). At that price, the deal values Level One at 48-3/4 a share, an 80 percent premium to Level One's Thursday closing price of 27-1/8.

"We believe this yields a fair value for our shareholders," Bob Pepper, Level One's CEO, told analysts in a conference call. Level One makes high-speed chips with built-in communication features for network equipment manufacturers. Intel, the world's largest chipmaker, has been anxious to expand beyond the traditional microprocessor market.

"The objective of this deal is clear," Mark Christensen, vice president and general manager of Intel's Network Communications Group, said. "We'd like to be the leading provider of silicon building blocks." In a conference call with reporters, Christensen said the company "will buy, develop or license whatever it takes to be number one in the industry."