FM Arun Jaitley in his budget has made a few announcements in the Budget that will help consumers. Railway travel with e-tickets booked through IRCTC will become cheaper as service charge on it has been withdrawn. RO water purifiers are likely to be slightly cheaper with basic customs duty on imported membrane sheet and tricot/spacer for use in the manufacture of RO membrane element for household filters has been reduced from 12.5 per cent to 6 per cent.
However, with a view to encourage domestic production of RO membrane element, the government has hiked basic customs duty on it to 10 per cent from 7.5 per cent earlier.
Customs duty of LNG has been halved to 2.5 per cent which can lead to lower power and fertiliser costs.With an eye on promoting clean energy source, the government has reduced basic customs duty on solar tempered glass used in solar panels from 5 per cent to nil.
Likewise, the basic customs duty and CVD on all items of machinery required for fuel cell based power generating systems to be set up in the country lowered to 5 and 6 per cent from 10/7 and 12.5 per cent earlier.
Also, the basic customs duty, on resins and catalyst for manufacture of cast components for wind operated energy generator has been lowered to 5 per cent from 7.5 per cent earlier, while CVD and SAD on these items have been slashed to nil from 12.5 per cent and 4 per cent, respectively earlier.
Continuing the focus on promoting leather industry, Jaitley announced that basic customs duty on vegetable tanning extracts used in making leather products such as bags and shoes has been slashed to 2.5 per cent from 7.5 per cent earlier.
Miniaturised POS card reader for m-POS, micro ATM as per standard version, finger print reader/scanner and iris scanner will also be cheaper as duty on these item have been reduced to nil.
For the defence forces, services provided or agreed to be provided by the Army, Naval and Air Force Group Insurance Funds by way of life insurance to their members under the Group Insurance Schemes of the Central Government is being exempted from service tax as against 14 per cent charged earlier.
costlier:
- Cigarettes, pan masala, cigar, cheroots, bidis, chewing tobacco
- LED lamp components
- Cashew nuts (roasted and salted)
- Aluminium ores and concentrates
- Polymer coated MS tapes used in manufacturing of optical fibres
- Silver coins and medallions
- Printed circuit board used in making mobile phones
cheaper:
- Booking railway tickets online
- RO membrane elements for household usage
- LNG
- Solar tempered glass used in solar panels
- Fuel cell based power generating systems
- Wind operated energy generator
- Vegetable tanning extracts used in making leather products
- POS machines card and fingerprint readers
- Group insurance for Defence services
