"Reforms in custom duties will support domestic manufacturing": Finance Minister

New Delhi [India], July 23 : In her budget speech in Parliament today, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the budget proposals for customs duties intend to support domestic manufacturing, deepen local value addition, promote export competitiveness, and simplify taxation while keeping the interests of the general public and consumers surmount.
New customs duty rates are proposed for commodities ranging from life-saving medicines to rare earth minerals.
In a big relief to cancer patients, three more medicines, viz. Trastuzumab, Deruxtecan, Osimertinib, and Durvalumab, have been completely exempted from customs duties.
Further, BCD on x-ray tubes & flat panel detectors for use in medical x-ray machines has also been decreased, so as to synchronise them with domestic capacity addition.
Finance Minister said that the last six years have seen a three-fold increase in domestic production of mobile phones and almost a hundred-fold jump in exports of mobile phones.
"In the interest of consumers, I now propose to reduce the BCD on mobile phones, mobile PCBA, and mobile chargers to 15 percent," the Minister said while presenting the Union Budget 2024-25 in Parliament today.
Finance Minister also announced full exemption of customs duties on 25 critical minerals, while reducing BCD (basic custom duty) on two of them.
This will benefit sectors like space, defence, telecommunications, high-tech electronics, nuclear energy and renewable energy, where these rare earth minerals are critical.
In a further boost to renewable energy sector, Minister announced the expansion of the list of exempted capital goods for use in the manufacture of solar cells and panels in the country.
"Further, in view of the sufficient domestic manufacturing capacity of solar glass and tinned copper interconnect, I propose not to extend the exemption of customs duties provided to them," the minister said.
To enhance the competitiveness of seafood exports from the country, the Minister proposed a reduction of BCD on certain broodstock, polychaete worms, shrimp and fish feed to 5 percent.
Apart from this, various inputs for the manufacture of shrimp and fish feed are exempted from customs duty to further boost the seafood exports.
Similar reduction and exemption in customs duty are also announced for various leather raw materials to enhance the competitiveness of exports in the leather and textile sectors. Furthermore, the export duty structure on raw hides, skins and leather is proposed to be simplified and rationalised.
Customs duties on gold and silver have been reduced from 15 percent to 6 percent, while those on platinum have been reduced from 15.4 percent to 6.4 percent, to enhance domestic value addition in Gold and precious metal jewelry in the country.
Further, BCD on ferro nickel and blister copper have been removed to reduce the cost of production of Steel and Copper.
The Minister also said that a comprehensive review of the Customs Duty rate structure will be undertaken over the next six months to rationalize and simplify it for ease of trade, removal of duty inversion, and reduction of disputes.