Budget 2024: What’s cheaper and costlier?

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.

However, certain items such as imported garden umbrellas and laboratory chemicals are also set to become costly due to an increase in basic customs duty.

The following is a list of items set to become cheaper and costlier.

Cheaper:

• Gold bar and dore

• Silver bar and dore

• Platinum, Palladium, Osmium, Ruthenium and Iridium

• Coins of precious metals

• Platinum and Palladium used in the manufacture of noble metal solutions, noble metal compounds and catalytic convertors

• Cancer Drugs - Trastuzumab Deruxtecan, Osimertinib, Durvalumab

• Medical Equipment -

All types of polyethylene for use in manufacture of orthopaedic implants

X-ray tubes for use in manufacture of X-ray machines for medical, surgical, dental or veterinary use

• Flat panel detectors (including scintillators) for use in manufacture of X-ray machines for medical, surgical, dental or veterinary use

• Imported cellular mobile phone

• Charger/Adapter of cellular mobile

• Printed Circuit Board Assembly (PCBA) of cellular mobile phone

• Specified capital goods for use in manufacture of solar cells or solar modules, and parts for manufacture of such capital goods

• Shea nuts

• Fish lipid oil for use in manufacture of aquatic feed

• Crude fish oil for use in manufacture of aquatic feed

• Natural Graphite

• Natural sands of all kinds

• Quartz

• Critical Minerals

• Lithium carbonates

• Lithium oxide and hydroxide

• Nitrates of potassium

• Steel Sector - Ferro Nickel and Blister Copper

• Textile and Leather Sector - Methylene Diphenyl Di-isocyanate (MDI) for use in the manufacture of Spandex Yarn

b) Costlier

• Poly vinyl chloride (PVC) flex films (also known as PVC flex banners or PVC flex sheets)

• Garden umbrellas

• Laboratory chemicals

• Solar glass for manufacture of solar cells or solar modules

• Tinned copper interconnect for manufacture of solar cells or solar modules.