Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman introduced the Union Budget 2024 on Tuesday, using a bottom-up approach. The Budget aimed to make medications more cheap, particularly for cancer patients, and contained initiatives to decrease customs charges on precious metals, decreasing the rate to 6% for gold and silver and 6.5% for platinum.
Meanwhile, communications equipment and plastic items are expected to grow more expensive.
“PVC flex banners are non-biodegradable and hazardous for environment and health. To curb their imports, I propose to raise the BCD on them from 10 to 25%,” she added.
-Here’s a list of things that got cheaper:
- Exempted three cancer drugs from customs taxes.
- Reduced BCD to 15% on mobile phones, PCBA, and mobile chargers.
- Reduced customs charge on gold and silver to 6%, and platinum to 6.5 percent.
- Reduced BCD on fish feed and shrimp to 5%.
- Exemption from customs duty on 25 key minerals.
-Here’s a list of products that will become pricey:
- BCD increased from 10% to 15% on PCBA of specific telecom equipment.
- BCD increased from 10% to 25%.
