Indian Government Planning To Hike Customs Duties On Electronics

It seems that the cost of electronic items going to witness a hike in pricing in India. According to the reports, the Indian government is planning to increase the import duties on electronics, chemicals, electrical goods, and handicrafts. The government is aiming for the worth of around $56 billion imports which is approx Rs. 399,400 crores.

The report suggests that the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will make the announcement official in her annual budget of 2020-2021 which is scheduled on February 1, 2020. Along with this, she will also announce some steps to boost economic growth in the country.

According to a report citing government sources who are familiar to the matter, the hike in customs duties will ultimately reflect the price hike in electronic goods including smartphones, chargers, industrial chemicals, handicraft items, wooden furniture, cameras, jewellery, and more.

Smartphone manufacturers are going to suffer the most due to customs duty hike. There are many companies which import chargers and other components like vibrator motors and ringers from China to India. IKEA is one of the multi-national companies which is trying to expand its footprint in India. But it seems after the customs duties hike things are going to be difficult for IKEA as well.

Sources told Reuters that the government had decided to increase the import tariffs by 5 percent to 10 percent. The numbers are recommended by a panel of trade and finance ministry officials.
"We expect the budget will address the issue of ... cheap imports under free trade pacts," Gopal Krishan Agarwal, the head of BJP's Economic Affairs Cell, told Reuters.

Meanwhile, the trade ministry has also asked the finance ministry to include a Border Adjustment Tax (BAT) on imported goods. This will help the domestic manufacturers to boost up their business. According to the reports, Indian goods import is faster than the exports in the past few years. Export has witnessed 8.90 percent fall in the April-December period in 2019.

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