Gold glitters a little more, mobile phones will pinch pocket less

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.

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The finance minister 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.

“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 secondbiggest bullion market.

“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.”