By Vipin Agnihotri
With today’s budget, plenty of things in India have gone cheaper while others have become expensive. If you are a chain smoker, there is bad news for you. P Chidambaram has raised duty on non-filter cigarettes. So it will obviously cost you more from now on. As Finance Minister has not proposed anything regarding liquor prices, you do not need to worry about the price of your favorite drink.
In case if you are planning to buy a new car, wait till April 1. This is because of the fact that P Chidambaram has proposed a reduction in the customs duty on small and hybrid cars. Auto manufacturers of hybrid cars are quite happy as Finance Minister has lower the excise duty on them from 24 per cent to 14 per cent. Hybrid cars are presently not on sale in India but come April, likes of Honda Siel, Toyota India and Mahindra & Mahindra is going to launch their vehicles.
If you are interested in buying new washing machine or refrigerator then there is good news for you. Indian Finance Minister believes that the manufacturing sector is the backbone of Indian economy and that is why he has given a 2 per cent general cut in excise duty on all consumer goods.
Brilliant news for Indian students, Chidambaram has announced a 20 per cent hike in education budget this year from Rs 28,674 crore (Rs 286.74 billion) to Rs 34,400 crore (Rs 344 billion). However, for mobile phone industry, news is not that encouraging. In my opinion, mobile phone users would now have to shell out more money for buying new handsets, with Indian government all set to levy one per cent excise duty on them.
Chidambaram has proposed to lower customs duty on specified life saving drugs from 10 per cent to 5 per cent. Furthermore, Anti-AIDS drugs have also got excise duty exemption. News is not that good for software industry, as Finance Minister has increased the excise duty on packaged software from 8 per cent to 12 per cent.
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