Industry demands the basic customs duty on all steel imports to be raised to 25%
Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday said customs duty cut on a number of items has been advanced, including edible oils, to curb high inflation.
Customs regimes can lead to labyrinthine legal disputes. Budget 2026 must recognise that an excessively defensive Customs posture can itself become a trade barrier, point out Mukesh Butani and Shankey Agrawal.
Vijay Kelkar, advisor to the finance minister, on Friday submitted the final reports on direct and indirect taxes to Finance Minister Jaswant Singh.
At 5% customs duty, the govt will earn more than $3 bn
Given the oversupply and weak domestic demand, the paper and paperboard players will be unable to pass on the entire increase in duties, and will see a further drop in their EBITDA margins.
The apex body for liquor firms Confederation of Indian Alcoholic Beverage Companies has urged the government to gradually reduce customs duties on British alcoholic beverages under the proposed India-UK free trade agreement to support domestic players. India and the UK have formally launched negotiations for an FTA, under which duties would be reduced or eliminated on several goods traded between the two countries. The Confederation of Indian Alcoholic Beverage Companies (CIABC) has also suggested the government to ensure that the UK allows the selling of domestic whiskies as 'Indian Whisky', irrespective of whether they are made from malt, grain spirits or molasses-based spirits.
The government should cut customs duties and streamline export promotion schemes and pay special attention to infrastructure to overcome the contracting exports on account of recession in India's major trading partners, the Economic Survey said.
India should accelerate the pace of reduction of customs duty rather than merely carry on building up the foreign exchange reserves, according to Montek Singh Ahluwalia, former finance secretary and one of the authors of India's economic reforms.
Impose safeguard duty on select paper varieties and hike customs duty
Champagne consumption in India is expanding beyond major metropolitan areas into smaller cities like Kanpur, Guwahati, and Lucknow, driven by a desire for sophisticated lifestyle declarations and a growing appreciation for the beverage.
The steep hike in onion prices set alarm bells ringing in the government, which has imposed a ban on onion exports till January 15, 2011, to increase availability in the domestic market.
The domestic crude oil producers will benefit from levy of customs duty at 5% on crude oil, and effective tax incidence will come down due to weighted deduction on R & D as well as cut in the surcharge on corporate taxes for domestic companies
The ferro alloy sector seeks hike in customs duty on entire range of ferro alloys to 10%, except retaining customs duty on ferro nickel at 5%, which is fully imported.
The government will cut excise and customs duty on petrol, diesel, LPG and kerosene to contain the effect of spike in international crude oil prices, which touched an all-time high of $47 a barrel.
The govt has hiked customs duty for metallurgical coke.
The Indian Coast Guard intercepted three vessels involved in an international oil smuggling syndicate operating in international waters near Mumbai, uncovering a sophisticated operation that evaded customs duties.
Move could fetch the exchequer Rs 14,000 cr
The government may cut customs duty on petrol and diesel by 5 per cent each to avoid increasing prices that had been necessitated due to a spurt in international oil prices.
The Union government is likely to cut import duties on diesel, kerosene and cooking gas to cushion the impact of high international crude oil prices on the domestic market.
The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence has booked cases at Mumbai and Delhi against private airlines Jet Airways and Air Sahara for non-payment of customs duty, the Lok Sabha was informed on Friday.
The Central Board of Excise and Customs, through a notification on February 12, has slashed the duty on both the variants of motorcycles imported as completely build units (CBU) to 50 per cent.
The government may tweak customs duties in the Budget next week on several goods, including furniture raw materials, copper scrap, certain chemicals, telecom equipment and rubber products, to promote domestic manufacturing and exports, sources said. They said that while import duties could be tweaked on over 20 products such as cut and polished diamonds, rubber goods, leather garments, telecom equipment and carpet, the customs duties could be removed on select raw materials (like wood in rough, swan wood and hard board) used for furniture manufacturing and copper concentrate.
Even as the government's move to hike import duties on 45 items is seen as a sign of protectionism, the prime minister was himself involved in the process.
Buckling under pressure from various quarters, the government on Monday withdrew the harsh provisions relating to excise and customs duty evasion cases. In Finance Bill 2012-13, it had earlier proposed to make certain excise and customs duty evasion cases non-bailable until the court had heard the public prosecutor.
In a moved aimed at bringing inflation under control, the government cut customs duty on 11 product categories, including portland cement, capital goods, project imports and raw materials, late Monday night.
India's GST revenues experienced significant growth in March, reaching pre-tax cut levels, driven by increased imports and domestic sales. The report analyses the impact of tax rate changes and provides insights into future trends and economic stability.
India's indigenous paper manufacturers are forced to use a variety of raw materials.
As domestic metal prices will rise faster than global prices if customs duty on metals is hiked, the capital goods sector seeks retaining them at current levels.
India and the United States are committed to finalising an interim trade agreement, despite recent challenges including the US imposing a blanket 10 per cent surcharge and India's decision to wait for a new global tariff architecture. The US Trade Representative's annual report highlights India's maintained high import tariffs and various non-tariff barriers across several sectors.
Despite India's electric passenger vehicle market experiencing an 83.6% year-on-year surge in FY26, new foreign entrants VinFast and BYD have significantly outpaced Tesla, which struggles with high import duties, a limited retail footprint, and a lack of local manufacturing commitment.
Exemption of custom duty on coal would help Chlor Alkali companies to lower their power cost wherever they have captive power generation based on coal.
Government should provide a level playing field to domestic manufacturers by making customs duty @ 10 per cent, CVD @ NIL and SAD @ 4 per cent on all categories of power projects including power generation, transmission and distribution projects in line with other infrastructure projects like roads, airports, ports, railways, transport terminals, bridges, tunnels and dams.
India on Friday revoked the 'most-favoured nation' status to Pakistan following the Pulwama terror strike.
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