The finance minister, in the Budget presentation on February 1, detailed change in import duties aimed at promoting some domestic industries while restricting imports from specific countries. Among the items are cocoa beans, umbrellas, electronic items —particularly speakers, headphones and earphones — and jewellery.
Most of the imports, where duty was hiked, are from China, with whom relations have been deteriorating over the past few years due to territorial claims. The customs duty on umbrellas, which are majorly imported from China, have been hiked to 20 per cent, with concessions and relaxations on import of parts withdrawn.
With regard to headphones and speakers, a similar move was taken, with the customs duty hiked from 15 per cent to 20 per cent, while duty on smart meters was raised from 15 per cent to 25 per cent.
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“Exemption is also being rationalised on implements and tools for agri-sector which are manufactured in India,” Sitharaman said while presenting the Union Budget for 2022-23.
Moving on to the items on which customs duty was reduced, diamonds, asafoetida, cocoa beans, methyl alcohol and acetic acid were the major mentions.
“Project import duty concessions have also deprived the local producers of a level playing field in areas like coal mining projects, power generation, transmission or distribution projects, railway and metro projects. Our experience suggests that reasonable tariffs are conducive to the growth of domestic industry and ‘Make in India’ without significantly impacting the cost of essential imports,” Sitharaman said in her Budget speech.
“Customs duty on certain critical chemicals namely methanol, acetic acid and heavy feedstocks for petroleum refining are being reduced, while duty is being raised on sodium cyanide for which adequate domestic capacity exists. These changes will help in enhancing domestic value addition,” Sitharaman said.
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