Union Budget 2024: What's cheaper and what's Costlier? Check out the list

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented her seventh consecutive Budget on Tuesday, charting a course towards 'Viksit Bharat' by 2047.?

The budget focuses on employment, skilling, agriculture, and manufacturing, aiming to balance fiscal prudence with economic growth. This marks the first budget under the Modi 3.0 administration and is the 13th straight Budget since Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government took office in 2014, including two interim budgets.

Notably, the finance minister announced new measures that will reduce the prices of mobile phones, gold, silver, and copper.

With the budget now tabled, Indian taxpayers are keen to learn which items have become more affordable and which ones have seen a price increase.

Items that have become cheaper:

1. ? The Finance Minister announced a reduction in Basic Customs Duty on mobile phones and mobile chargers to 15 per cent.
2. Customs duty on gold and silver has been reduced to 6 per cent and on platinum to 6.4 per cent.
3. Three cancer treatment medicines have been exempted from Basic Customs Duty.
4. The Finance Minister also proposed to expand the list of exempted capital goods used in the manufacturing of solar panels.
5. The TDS rate on e-commerce transactions has been reduced from 1 per cent to 0.1 per cent.
6. Basic Customs Duty on ferronickel and blister copper has been removed.
7. Basic Customs Duty on certain broodstock, polychaete worms, and shrimp and fish feed has been reduced to 5 per cent.
8. Customs duty on various inputs for the manufacture of shrimp and fish feed has been exempted. To enhance the competitiveness of exports in the leather and textile sectors,?
9. Basic Customs Duty on real down filling material from ducks or geese has been reduced.
10. To support existing and new capacities in the pipeline, Basic Customs Duty on ammonium nitrate has been reduced from 7.5 to 10 per cent.
11. Basic Customs Duty on oxygen-free copper for the manufacture of resistors has been removed.
12. Customs duties on 25 critical minerals for sectors like nuclear energy, renewable energy, space, defence, telecommunications, and high-tech electronics have been fully exempted, and Basic Customs Duty on two of them has been reduced.??
    

Items that have become costlier:

1. ? The Finance Minister proposed an increase in customs duty on ammonium nitrate to 10 per cent and on non-biodegradable plastics to 25 per cent.
2. Basic customs duty on specified telecom equipment has been increased from 10 percent to 15 percent.
3. The government also proposed to levy TCS of 1 per cent on notified goods with a value exceeding ?10 lakh.??
4. The finance minister also announced that the customs duty exemption on solar glass will not be extended.?
   

In the 2023 annual budget, the finance minister had announced reductions in import taxes on various components, including camera lenses, to promote mobile phone manufacturing in India. Additionally, the tax rate on lithium-ion batteries, essential for phones and electric vehicles, was cut to facilitate cheaper manufacturing in the country.

During the previous year's budget session, prices of items such as TVs, smartphones, compressed gas, shrimp feed, and lab-grown diamonds were lowered. In contrast, costs for cigarettes, air travel, and textiles were increased.

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