New Delhi, July 23: One aspect that always garners much traction on the Budget day is what got cheaper and what got costlier. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman as part of her Budget presentation proposed a host of tweaks in basic customs duty (BCD) for various products or items that are critical for manufacturing.

In her Budget speech, Sitharaman proposed an exemption on customs duty on certain cancer medicines and a reduction in duties on mobile phone parts and chargers, aimed at bringing down their prices in the retail market. Union Budget 2024: What Becomes Cheaper and What’s Costlier?.

"With a three-fold increase in domestic production and almost 100-fold jump in exports of mobile phones over the last six years, the Indian mobile phone industry has matured. In the interest of consumers, I now propose to reduce the BCD on mobile phone, mobile PCBA and mobile charger to 15 per cent," said Sitharaman in her Budget speech that lasted around 90 minutes.

To provide relief to cancer patients, she proposed to fully exempt three more medicines from customs duties. Imported gold, silver, leather goods and seafood will also get cheaper, as duties were invariably lowered on them. Duty cut on gold would boost retail demand and help in curtailing smuggling in the world's second-biggest bullion market. Union Budget 2024: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Gives Relief to Salaried Class on Income Tax Slabs and Standard Deduction (Watch Video).

"To enhance domestic value addition in gold and precious metal jewellery in the country, I propose to reduce customs duties on gold and silver to 6 per cent and that on platinum to 6.4 per cent." She also proposed changes in the customs duty on X-ray tubes and flat panel detectors for use in medical X-ray machines under the Phased Manufacturing Programme, so as to synchronise them with domestic capacity addition.

Also, she proposed to fully exempt customs duties on 25 critical minerals and reduce basic customs duty on two of them. Minerals such as lithium, copper, cobalt and rare earth elements are critical for sectors like nuclear energy, renewable energy, space, defence, telecommunications, and high-tech electronics, said the finance minister.

"This will provide a major fillip to the processing and refining of such minerals and help secure their availability for these strategic and important sectors," Sitharaman said. Putting energy transition on focus, as it is critical in the fight against climate change, the finance minister proposed to expand the list of exempted capital goods for use in the manufacture of solar cells and panels in the country.

However, in view of sufficient domestic manufacturing capacity of solar glass and tinned copper interconnect, it was proposed not to extend the exemption of customs duties provided to them. To enhance competitiveness in marine products, the reduced duty on certain broodstock, polychaete worms, shrimp and fish feed to 5 per cent, besides exempting customs duty on various inputs for manufacture of shrimp and fish feed.

Moving on to leather and textile, reduction in duty was announced for various items. "...to enhance the competitiveness of exports in the leather and textile sectors, I propose to reduce BCD on real down filling material from duck or goose," Sitharaman said.

To reduce cost of production of steel and copper, two important raw materials, it was proposed to remove the customs duty on ferro nickel and blister copper.

"I am also continuing with nil BCD (customs duty) on ferrous scrap and nickel cathode and concessional BCD of 2.5 per cent on copper scrap."

On the flip side, to support chemicals and petrochemicals, an increase in duty was proposed. To support existing and new capacities in the pipeline, an increase in duty on ammonium nitrate from 7.5 to 10 per cent would be applicable.

PVC flex banners are non-biodegradable and hazardous for environment and health. To curb their imports, a propose was made to raise the duty on them from 10 to 25 per cent. To incentivise domestic telecommunication equipment manufacturing, a propose to increase the duty from 10 to 15 per cent on PCBA (printed circuit board assembly) of specified telecom equipment was made.

Explaining her rational behind the indirect taxes tweak, Sitharaman said her proposals for customs duties intend to support domestic manufacturing, deepen local value addition, promote export competitiveness, and simplify taxation, while keeping the interest of the general public and consumers surmount. In Budget 2022-23 too, the government reduced the number of customs duty rates.

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