Customs Duties on Imported Plant and Machinery for Iron Ore Plants Reduced to 2.5 Per Cent

The Union Finance Minister ShriPranab Mukherjee while presenting the Union Budget for 2012-13 has announced to reduce basic customs duties on plant and machinery imported for setting-up of iron ore pellet plants or iron ore beneficiation plants from 7.5 percent to 2.5 percent. In his Budget Speech in LokSabha today, the Finance Minister proposed to reduce basic customs duty on coating material for manufacturing of electrical steel from 7.5 percent to 5.0 percent. On nickel ore and concentrate and nickel oxide/ hydroxide, the duties have been reduced to NIL from 2.5 percent or 7.5 percent. In other proposals, export duty on chromium ore has been enhanced from Rs. 3,000/- per tonne to 30 percent ad valorem. Basic customs duty on non-alloy, flat rolled steel has been proposed to enhance from 5 percent to 7.5 percent.

Shri Mukherjee said that relief has been proposed for sectors such as steel, textiles, branded readymade garments, low-cost medical devices, labour intensive sectors producing items of mass consumption and matches produced by semi-mechanised units. He proposed to fully exempt automatic shuttle-less looms from basic customs duty of 5 per cent. Similarly, full exemption on basic duty is being accorded to automatic silk reeling and processing machinery as well as its parts.

Full exemption from basic customs duties has been proposed on waste paper, LCD and LED TV Panels and parts of memory card for mobile phones in the Budget 2012-13.