Civil Aviation Ministry has sought service tax exemption as well as customs duty relaxation for Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul, MRO, activities to boost aviation sector. Speaking at a seminar in New Delhi today, Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju said he has discussed with the Finance Ministry in this regard. He said, if the States also bring down their VAT, it would be practical to have MRO industry in the country. The MRO works of aircraft are mostly done overseas by the local carriers as costs are high in India.<br/>Mr Raju said, the Ministry need to pull in the 700 million dollar worth MRO business into India. He said, his Ministry had consulted Finance Ministry and it looks encouraging on the issues of service tax and increasing the customs duty window from one year to three years. At present, spare parts of aircraft have to be used within one year of import and for that period they are exempt from basic customs duty.