President Donald Trump of the United States has imposed 'reciprocal tariffs' on imports from various countries. With this abandonment of the policy to impose the same tariffs on imports from most countries, nearly all governments, businesses, and economists are busy examining the short- and medium-term implications of this change.
The USTR report, released just ahead of the US' April 2 deadline for implementing reciprocal tariffs, has also cited high tariffs and price caps, which have not increased in line with inflation, as key obstacles for US businesses.
The government has identified 50 public-private partnership (PPP) projects worth over Rs 60,000 crore, significantly surpassing the original targets of the National Monetisation Pipeline, said Ports, Shipping, and Waterways Minister Sarbananda Sonowal at the Business Standard Infrastructure Summit on Thursday.
The iron and steel industry in India consists of integrated steel plants based on Blast Furnace, Basic Oxygen Furnace route, main producers based on Cores, Finex or PCI Technology, mini steel plants and standalone finished steel producers
The Union health ministry has been allocated Rs 99,858.56 crore in the Budget 2025-2026, an around 11 per cent hike over the Rs 89,974.12 crore in the budget (revised estimates) of 2024-2025 with the government announcing setting up daycare cancer centres at all district hospitals over the next three years.
The Customs tariff is much too complicated with basic Customs duty, two types of additional Customs duty and two types of cess.
It is likely that the import duty on input materials would be maintained at the current levels. However many finished products with lower import duty compared to duty on input materials may be increased.
The Budget has given signals that India is sensitive to the US needs and willing to walk the extra mile, but if need be, we should respond in equal measure as a sovereign nation, notes Ajay Srivastava.
Gold, silver and other precious metals along with imported mobile phones, certain cancer drugs and medical devices are set to become cheaper with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announcing cuts in customs duty in the Union Budget 2024-25.
India's recent move to remove additional 'retaliatory' duty on eight products from the United States (US), including apples and walnuts, would not have any negative impact on the domestic producers, the government clarified, even as the issue threatened to snowball into a political slugfest between the ruling and Opposition parties. The move would, in fact, result in competition in the premium market segment, ensuring better quality at better prices for consumers, especially for apples, a senior government official said. "There were certain concerns that were being raised on the mutually agreed solution that has come in, more specific to seven-eight agriculture products where we had levied additional import duties in retaliation to the steel and aluminum measures (imposed by the US)," Peeyush Kumar, additional secretary in the commerce department, told reporters in a briefing.
Ahead of the visit, officials from key government departments held intense discussions to identify key trade-related proposals.
Mobile phones and TV sets manufactured in India would become cheaper with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announcing cuts in Basic Customs Duty (BCD) on import of their components but smokers would have to pay more as the government has increased taxes.
The Budget 2025-26 meets the expectations of fiscal consolidation, maintaining capital expenditure, and boosting consumption through tax cuts.
Starlink's application for offering satcom services in India had been held up for the company's inability to comply with mandatory ownership disclosure norms.
The mortality-to-incidence ratio for India was 64.47 per cent in 2022, the highest while comparing the top 10 countries with the highest number of cancer incidences.
The Finance Minister has withdrawn excise exemption on 130 items and a nominal central excise duty of 1 per cent is being levied on these 130 items that are mainly in nature of consumer goods.
Union Budget 2014-15 is positive for metals and mining companies.
The government in FY26 Budget should announce an "effective" personal income tax cut to support consumption and demand, Barclays said on Thursday. In its FY25-26 Union Budget preview, Barclays said the key ask from the Budget, to be presented on February 1, is to support growth while adhering to fiscal consolidation path.
The tyre industry has urged the Central Government for recast of India's Free Trade Agreements
While duty on products such as methyl alcohol (methanol) and acetic acid has been brought down to 2.5 per cent and 5 per cent, respectively from the existing 10 per cent.
The Union Budget has proposed to extend concessional basic customs duty of 5 per cent with full exemption from excise/countervailing duty to six specified life-saving drugs and vaccines, even as the stress has been laid on vaccine security.
Metal sector is not too happy from Budget announcements for the sector
The Indian chemical industry has an output of around USD 80 billion and ranks 12th in the world while the size of the global chemical industry is in the region of USD 3 trillion.
The exemption of the value of right to use packaged software would be beneficial to the gaming industry.
According to experts, even if an additional 5 per cent of people opt to buy new vehicles, it may bring a huge boost to the sector.
The budget has been neutral with positive bias for the auto component industry.
Union Budget 2012-13 has given some relief for coffee sector as the Finance minister proposed to reduce basic customs from 7.5 per cent to 5 per cent on specified coffee plantation and processing machinery.
'Due to tariff uncertainty, automotive customers reduced their steel uplift by almost 15 per cent.'
The industry expects 0% duty on all types of fuels, low duty rate of 2% on basic building blocks like benzene, toluene, xylene, naphthalene etc.; moderate duty rate on Intermediates of 5% and high duty rate on finished products of 7.5%.
Do home prices really never fall? Ramalingam Kalirajan begs to differ.
'As negotiations continue, the path forward demands not only diplomatic skill, but also vigilance against legal asymmetries embedded in America's trade playbook.'
As much as Rs 8,000 crore worth of mobile phones in this segment - out of a total of Rs 15,000 crore - come into the country through the grey market. The government imposed the duty on these phones primarily to encourage domestic production but the strategy has failed as the bulk of high end mobile phones are currently imported.
Simplifying investment policies at the micro level and introducing a time-bound framework will be critical for India's growth targets, notes Krishna Ella.
In a significant policy shift aimed at boosting agri-productivity and rural prosperity, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday announced six new agricultural schemes while increasing the subsidised Kisan Credit Card loan limit to Rs 5 lakh from the existing Rs 3 lakh, benefiting 7.7 crore farmers, fishermen, and dairy farmers.
The government has hiked gold import duty to 15 per cent from 10.75 per cent to check the current account deficit (CAD) and rising import of the yellow metal. The duty changes came into effect on June 30. Earlier, the basic customs duty on gold was 7.5 per cent, now it will be 12.5 per cent.
Importers will now have to provide sufficient proof to the domestic customs authorities that the goods being imported have a minimum 35 per cent value addition in the country from which it is being exported to India.
'If you invest in sovereign gold bond, you are going to get the price rise of gold over an eight year period.' 'You're also going to get that two-and-a-half percent which the Government of India is willing to give you, treating the money that you've invested in the sovereign gold bond as a kind of a FD or a deposit.' 'That kind of return you can never get anywhere else.'
The government on Monday reduced basic customs duty on influenza vaccine and nine other specified life-saving drugs used for treating breast cancer, hepatitis-B, rheumatic arthritis, etc.
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