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As the Union Budget for the financial year was presented, goods like camera lenses and mobile phones will become cheaper, while goods like electric kitchen chimneys and articles of gold and platinum will become costlier.
It is pertinent to note that the items on which customs duty has been reduced, will become cheaper, while those on which the customs duty has been increased, will become costly. The items that will become cheaper are camera lenses, lab-grown diamonds, cellular mobile phones, machinery for lithium-ion batteries and raw materials for the EV industry. The government reduced the custom duties on clothes, frozen mussels, frozen squids, asafoetida, cocoa beans, methyl alcohol, acetic acid, cut and polished diamonds, chemicals needed for petroleum products, camera lenses for cellular mobile phones and steel scrap, which will make these goods cheaper. Others items which will become cheaper include parts of open cells of TV panels, denatured ethyl alcohol used in the chemical industry and compounded rubber. Customs duty has also been reduced on the camera lens and its inputs. The parts used in the manufacture of camera modules of cellular mobile phones have been reduced to zero. The concessional duty on lithium-ion cells for batteries was extended for another year. The raw materials needed for factories, items like acid-grade fluorspar, denatured ethyl alcohol, and crude glycerin would get cheaper, owing to the change in their duties. Also, the customs duty exemption on raw materials for the manufacture of CRGO Steel, ferrous scrap and nickel cathode will continue. Lab-grown diamond is another item that will become cheaper, as the government has cut basic customs duty (BCD) on seeds used in the manufacture of lab-grown diamonds. The items that will become costlier include articles made from gold bars, cigarettes, imitation jewellery, silver, copper, and an electric kitchen chimney. In a blow to cigarette-manufacturing companies like ITC, the government has decided to hike National Calamity Contingent Duty (NCCD) on specified cigarettes by about 16 per cent. The government has also increased the import duty on compounded rubber from 10 per cent to 25 per cent. The basic customs duty has been hiked on articles made from gold bars. Imported bicycles and toys and electronic vehicles will also become costlier. Copper is another item that will get dearer, as the concessional basic customs duty of 2.5 per cent on copper scrap will continue. Earlier today, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget, which happens to be the last full Budget of the Modi government in its second term. This is the fifth budget presentation by Sitharaman. This year's Budget holds much significance as the country is scheduled to have the next Lok Sabha election in April-May 2024. As per established tradition, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman along with ministers of state Pankaj Chaudhary and Bhagwat Karad and Finance Secretary T V Somanathan called on President Droupadi Murmu. The budget session of the Parliament began on Tuesday with President's address, subsequently tabling the Economic Survey for 2022-23. The formal exercise to prepare the annual Budget for the next financial year (2023-24) commenced on October 10. The Economic Survey, tabled in the Parliament on Tuesday, noted India's GDP is expected to grow in the range of 6 to 6.8 per cent in the coming financial year 2023-24. This is in comparison to the estimated 7 per cent this fiscal and 8.7 per cent in 2021-22. (ANI)
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