Reduction in Customs Duty Rates on Goods

New Delhi, Feb 1 (IANS) To promote exports and enhance domestic manufacturing, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during her Budget speech on Wednesday announced a reduction in customs duty rates on various commodities and products.

FM Sitharaman proposed a reduction in the number of customs duty rates on goods except for textiles, from 21 to 13. She also added that the government will also continue concessional duties on lithium ions cells for batteries for one more year.

"There are minor changes in cess and levies on products such as toys, naphtha, and automobiles," she said.

The FM said that to rectify the inversion of duty structure and encourage the manufacture of electric kitchen chimneys, the import duty is being raised from 7.5 per cent to 15 per cent, while that on chimneys' heat coil is being reduced from 20 per cent to 15 per cent.

"To give impetus to mobile phone production units in the country, the Central government will exempt customs duty on imports of certain parts and inputs in mobile manufacturing like camera lens," FM added.

To promote value addition in the manufacturing of TVs, FM proposed to reduce the Basic Customs Duty on parts of open cells of TV panels to 2.5 per cent.