Union Budget 2024: What turned cheaper and costlier? Check list

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, while presenting the Union Budget for fiscal year 2024-25, announced a rejig in the basic customs duty (BCD) on an array of items.

The change in BCD will lead to some items turning cheaper and other dearer, as those with lower duties will cost less, whereas higher duties will lead to some items becoming costlier.

Here's a list of what turned cheaper due to Budget 2024:

Sitharaman proposed reducing "customs duties on gold and silver to 6% and that on platinum to 6.4%" to enhance domestic value addition for jewellery in the country. This is expected to bring down the input costs, and thereby lead to a reduction in jewellery prices.

To provide relief to cancer patients, the finance minister proposed to fully exempt three more medicines from customs duties -- Trastuzumab Deruxtecan, Osimertinib and Durvalumab.

"In the interest of consumers, I now propose to reduce the BCD (basic customs duty) on mobile phone, mobile PCBA and mobile charger to 15%," Sitharaman said. Earlier BCD on mobile phones, chargers and motherboard was 20%.

The finance minister also proposed removing BCD on specified capital goods for use in manufacturing of solar cells or solar modules and said this will "support energy transition".

Sitharaman proposed reducing BCD on certain broodstock, polychaete worms, shrimp and fish feed to 5% to promote India's seafood exports, which has touched an all-time high of more than ₹60,000 crore in the last financial year.

For leather and textile sectors, she proposed to remove duty on import of wet white, crust and finished leather for manufacturing of textile or leather garments, footwear or other leather products for export.

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Here's a list of what turned costlier due to Budget 2024:

Sitharaman announced the withdrawal of customs duty exemption on import of solar glass and tinned copper interconnect "in view of sufficient domestic manufacturing capacity".

Moreover, to support existing and new capacities in the pipeline, she also proposed to increase the BCD on ammonium nitrate from 7.5% to 10%.

Besides, she raised BCD on poly vinyl chloride (PVC) flex films, which is also known as PVC flex banners or PVC flex sheets, from existing 10% to 25% as they are non-biodegradable and hazardous for environment and health.

Moreover, to incentivise domestic manufacturing, the finance minister proposed to increase the BCD from 10% to 15% on printed circuit board assembly (PCBA) of specified telecom equipment.