Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday announced the budget for 2023-24 in which certain items got cheaper while others got costlier.
Sitharaman, who took over as the finance minister in 2019, presented her fifth budget. She announced changes in certain duties and taxes that will result in certain electronic items getting cheaper and items cigarette burning a larger hole in the pockets of smokers.
See below for the full list of items that will be available for less and what items will get expensive.
What gets cheaper:
The government proposed a slash on customs duty on parts of open cells of TV panels by 2.5 per cent.
Customs duty on imports of parts for mobile phone manufacturing has been reduced.
The customs duty on seeds used in the production of lab-grown diamonds has been reduced.
The government also reduced customs duty on shrimp feed in a bid to promote exports.
What gets costlier:
Cigarettes will get costlier after the finance minister announced a hike on taxes by 16 per cent.
The finance minister has proposed a hike on basic import duty on compounded rubber from 10 per cent to 25 per cent.
The government has also hiked basic customs duty on articles made from gold bars.
The customs duty on kitchen chimneys has been increased from 7.5 per cent to 15 per cent.
Elsewhere, in a bid to acquire major weapon systems including fighter aircraft, submarines and tanks, the defence services today got a hike of around 13 per cent in their budget for 2023-24 as Rs 5.94 lakh crore were allocated to them, up from the Rs 5.25 lakh crore given last year.
This year’s budget is very significant with the country scheduled to go to polls in April-May next year. The finance minister called on President Droupadi Murmu ahead of presenting the budget.
Before heading to the parliament, the finance minister met with the President at Rashtrapati Bhawan according to established tradition.
