Import duty hike: Fridges, ACs, diamonds, etc. to cost more
On Wednesday, the government hiked import duties on 19 categories of "non-essential items" ranging from refrigerators and washing machines to luxury items like diamonds. The move is an effort by the government to check India's widening current account deficit resulting from increasing global crude oil prices and the falling Indian rupee. CAD has widened to 2.4% in Q1 of 2018-19. Here's the full list.
Items which will be taxed at 20% and above
Hiked from 10% to 20% - ACs, household refrigerators, washing machines in the less than 10kg category Hiked from 15% to 20% - Articles of jewellery, goldsmith and silver wares, and any jewellery with precious metal Hiked from 20% to 25% - Imported footwear, excluding parts of such footwear like removable in-soles
Commonly used items see a 5% hike
Items to be taxed at 15%, up from earlier 10%: Speakers Radial car tyres Tableware, kitchenware and other household items of plastic Articles of plastic such as boxes, bottles, cases, insulated ware and containers Office stationery Furniture fittings Decorative sheets, statuettes, beads and bangles Trunk, suitcases, executive cases, briefcases, travel bags, other bags Bath, shower bath, bath sink and wash basin made of plastic
Other items that have seen import duty hikes
Hike from 5% to 7.5% - cut and polished diamonds, semi-processed diamonds, lab-grown diamonds, cut and polished colored gemstones Hiked from 7.5% to 10% - compressors used in refrigerators and ACs Additionally, aviation turbine fuel (ATF), which earlier saw no import duties imposed on it, will now be see an import duty of 5%.
The new rates will be effective from September 27
The total value of imports of these 19 categories of items in the year 2017-18 was a whopping Rs. 86,000cr. Now, the new import duties will come into effect from September 27, 2018 i.e. the midnight of September 26/September 27.
