diff --git a/pandoc.cabal b/pandoc.cabal
index a5e4f5a83..3e650a1b1 100644
--- a/pandoc.cabal
+++ b/pandoc.cabal
@@ -199,7 +199,9 @@ Library
   -- Note: the following is duplicated in all stanzas.
   -- It needs to be duplicated because of the library & executable flags.
   -- BEGIN DUPLICATED SECTION
-  Build-Depends: containers >= 0.1 && < 0.6,
+  Build-Depends: base >= 4.2 && <5,
+                 syb >= 0.1 && < 0.4,
+                 containers >= 0.1 && < 0.6,
                  parsec >= 3.1 && < 3.2,
                  mtl >= 1.1 && < 2.2,
                  network >= 2 && < 2.5,
@@ -232,10 +234,6 @@ Library
   else
     build-depends:
                  blaze-html >= 0.4.3.0 && < 0.5
-  if impl(ghc >= 6.10)
-    Build-depends: base >= 4 && < 5, syb >= 0.1 && < 0.4
-  else
-    Build-depends: base >= 3 && < 4
   if impl(ghc >= 7.0.1)
     Ghc-Options:   -O2 -rtsopts -Wall -fno-warn-unused-do-bind -dno-debug-output
   else
@@ -311,7 +309,9 @@ Executable pandoc
   -- Note: the following is duplicated in all stanzas.
   -- It needs to be duplicated because of the library & executable flags.
   -- BEGIN DUPLICATED SECTION
-  Build-Depends: containers >= 0.1 && < 0.6,
+  Build-Depends: base >= 4.2 && <5,
+                 syb >= 0.1 && < 0.4,
+                 containers >= 0.1 && < 0.6,
                  parsec >= 3.1 && < 3.2,
                  mtl >= 1.1 && < 2.2,
                  network >= 2 && < 2.5,
@@ -344,10 +344,6 @@ Executable pandoc
   else
     build-depends:
                  blaze-html >= 0.4.3.0 && < 0.5
-  if impl(ghc >= 6.10)
-    Build-depends: base >= 4 && < 5, syb >= 0.1 && < 0.4
-  else
-    Build-depends: base >= 3 && < 4
   if impl(ghc >= 7.0.1)
     Ghc-Options:   -O2 -rtsopts -Wall -fno-warn-unused-do-bind -dno-debug-output
   else
@@ -378,10 +374,6 @@ Test-Suite test-pandoc
   Type:           exitcode-stdio-1.0
   Main-Is:        test-pandoc.hs
   Hs-Source-Dirs: tests
-  if impl(ghc >= 6.10)
-    Build-depends: base >= 4 && < 5, syb >= 0.1 && < 0.4
-  else
-    Build-depends: base >= 3 && < 4
   Build-Depends: pandoc,
                  pandoc-types >= 1.10 && < 1.11,
                  utf8-string >= 0.3 && < 0.4,
@@ -428,11 +420,9 @@ benchmark benchmark-pandoc
   Type:            exitcode-stdio-1.0
   Main-Is:         benchmark-pandoc.hs
   Hs-Source-Dirs:  benchmark
-  if impl(ghc >= 6.10)
-    Build-depends: base >= 4 && < 5, syb >= 0.1 && < 0.4
-  else
-    Build-depends: base >= 3 && < 4
-  Build-Depends: pandoc,
+  Build-Depends: base >= 4.2 && < 5,
+                 syb >= 0.1 && < 0.4,
+                 pandoc,
                  criterion >= 0.5 && < 0.7,
                  json >= 0.4 && < 0.6
   if impl(ghc >= 7.0.1)