Budget 2025: What gets cheaper and what gets expensive from now?Budget 2025: What gets cheaper and what gets expensive from now?

Introduction:

Union Budget 2025 Highlights  

The Union Budget 2025 aims to drive India’s economic growth while fostering inclusive development. It focuses on boosting household sentiment, empowering the rising middle class, and stimulating key sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, employment, and rural development to ensure long-term economic progress.

Tax Relief Measures for Individuals  

A major aspect of the budget is the exemption of income tax for individuals earning up to ₹12 lakh annually under the new tax regime. Salaried employees will effectively benefit from a ₹12.75 lakh limit due to the ₹75,000 standard deduction, enhancing their disposable income significantly.

What’s Getting Cheaper?

• Medicines & Medical Equipment:
  
  • 36 life-saving cancer-related drugs exempt from customs duty.
  • Basic customs duty was reduced to 5% for six essential drugs.
• Electronics/Renewables:
  
  • Basic Customs Duty (BCD) on open cells and components for LCD/LED reduced to 5%.
  • Focus on clean tech manufacturing, including solar PV cells, motors, wind turbines, and batteries.
• Critical Minerals:
  
  • BCD exemption on cobalt powder, lithium-ion battery waste, and 12 other critical minerals to support manufacturing.
• Marine:
  
  • Duties on fish pasteur reduced from 30% to 5%.
  • Frozen fish duties were reduced from 30% to 5%.
  • Fish hydro licenses duties reduced from 15% to 5%.
• Leather & Textiles:
  
  • BCD exemptions on wet blue and crust leather imports.
  • New scheme for the leather and footwear sector to create 2.2 million jobs and generate ₹4 lakh crore in revenue.
• Tourism:
  
  • Visa-free waivers for certain tourists to boost inbound travel.
• Shipbuilding:
  
  • Raw materials for ship manufacturing are exempt from BCD for 10 years.
• Telecom:
  
  • BCD on carrier-grade Ethernet switches reduced from 20% to 10%, aligning with non-carrier-grade switches.
• EVs & Mobiles:
  
  • Additional 35 goods for EV battery manufacturing and 28 goods for mobile phone battery manufacturing added to the exempted capital goods list.

Also read : Shipping stocks to benefit after FM announces ₹25,000 Cr financial assistance to boost shipbuilding sector

What’s Getting Costlier?

• Electronics:
  
  • BCD on flat panel displays increased from 10% to 20%.
• Knitted Fabrics:
  
  • Duties on knitted fabrics increased from 10% to 20%.
• Customs Duty Adjustments:
  
  • Time Limit for Provisional Assessments: Limited to two years for quicker customs clearance.
  • Removal of Tariff Rates: Seven tariff rates removed in the 2023-24 budget, with seven more to be eliminated.
  • Social Welfare Surcharge: Exempted on 82 tariff lines subject to a cess.
• Income Tax:
  
  • ITR filing limit extended from two to four years.
  • TCS threshold for LRS remittances raised from ₹7 lakh to ₹10 lakh.
  • TDS limit on rent increased to ₹6 lakh.
  • Kisan Credit Card loan limit increased to ₹5 lakh from ₹2 lakh.

Also read : What is the policy announced by FM for footwear sector in union budget 2025?

• Long-term Industrial Growth Support:
  
  • Focus on R&D, MSMEs, and capital goods.
  • 100% FDI in the insurance sector with new guidelines.

Disclaimer: The above article is written for educational purposes, and the companies’ data mentioned in the article may change with respect to time The securities quoted are exemplary and are not recommendatory.