Today, the Union Budget was presented by the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman which proposed the rationalisation of customs tariff structure for industrial goods.
As a part of comprehensive review of Customs rate structure announced in July 2024 Budget, the Union Finance Minister proposed to remove seven tariff rates. This is over and above the seven tariff rates removed in the 2023-24 budget. After this, there will be only eight remaining tariff rates including ‘zero’ rate.
The Union Finance Minister, Niramala Sitharaman proposed to apply appropriate cess to broadly maintain effective duty incidence except on a few items, where such incidence will reduce marginally.
The Union Finance Minister, Niramala Sitharaman proposed to levy not more than one cess or surcharge. Therefore, I propose to exempt Social Welfare Surcharge on 82 tariff lines that are subject to a cess.