Under the Union Budget released on Wednesday, the government will hike the custom duty on cigarettes and articles made from precious metals, while parts of mobile phone will get cheaper.
Centre announced a 16% hike of custom duty on cigarettes. Soon after the announcement shares of cigarette companies, including Godfrey Phillips India and ITC Ltd, dropped by up to 5% on the Bombay Stock Exchange, reported PTI.
The stock of Godfrey Phillips slumped up to 5.43% to Rs 1,818.90 on the BSE, while Golden Tobacco declined 1.38% to Rs 60.90.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also announced increase in import duty on Silver bars and articles, and surge in custom duty on articles made of gold and platinum on Wednesday.
Sitharaman announced hike in customs duty on fully imported cars, including electric vehicles. Custom duty on vehicles in completely built units costing less than $40,000 (Rs 32,79,280) or with engine capacity less than 3,000 cc for petrol-run vehicles and less than 2,500 cc for diesel-run vehicles has been increased from 60% to 70%.
Union Budget also announced a hike in customs duty on electric kitchen chimney to 15% from 7.5%.
The Union Budget also included reduction in taxes on some products, including parts of open cells of television panels that would be cut to 2.5%, while customs duty on the import of certain inputs for mobile phone manufacturing was also slashed.
Basic customs duty on chimney heat coils was reduced from 20% to 15%. Chemicals and petrochemicals will also get cheaper, according to the budget. Customs duty on shrimp feed will be dropped to promote exports, Sitharaman announced on Wednesday.
The Centre has also reduced basic customs duty on seeds used in manufacturing of lab-grown diamonds.
“I propose to reduce the number of basic custom duty rates on goods other than textiles and agriculture, from 21% to 13%,” Sitharaman said. “As a result, there are minor changes in the basic custom duties, cesses and surcharges on some items including toys, bicycles, automobiles.”
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