Customs Duty on Gold, Silver, Mobile Phones Cut to 6%, No Duty on 3 Drugs for Cancer Treatment

Moneylife Digital Team 23 July 2024

Consumer Interest

The Union government on Tuesday slashed customs duties on a range of products, including gold, silver, critical minerals, mobile phones and other electronic items, to cut input costs, increase value addition, promote export competitiveness and boost domestic manufacturing. In the Budget speech, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed new customs duty rates for commodities from life-saving medicines to rare earth minerals.

In a big relief to cancer patients, three more medicines—trastuzumabderuxtecan, osimertinib, and durvalumab, have been completely exempted from customs duties. Further, the basic customs duty (BCD) on X-ray tubes and flat panel detectors for use in medical x-ray machines has also been decreased to synchronise them with domestic capacity addition.

According to the FM, the past 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 printed circuit board assembly (PCBA) and mobile charger to 15%,” Ms Sitharaman said while presenting the Union Budget FY24-25 in Parliament.

Customs duties on gold and silver have been reduced from 15% to 6%, while that on platinum has been reduced from 15.4% to 6.4% to enhance the domestic value of gold and precious metal jewellery 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 FM said.

The FM also announced full exemption of customs duties on 25 critical minerals while reducing BCD 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 the renewable energy sector, Ms Sitharaman 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 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.

The duties were also reduced on shea nuts, marine sector goods like prawn and shrimp feed and fish feed, inputs for the manufacture of these feeds like lipid oil, other precious metals like silver and platinum; textile, steel, copper, capital goods, shipping, medical equipment and leather sector items.

Ms Sitharaman said a comprehensive review of the customs duty rate structure will be undertaken over the next six months to rationalise and simplify it for ease of trade, removal of duty inversion and reduction of disputes.

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