New Delhi, Jul 23 (IANS): The proposals to reduce customs duties will support domestic manufacturing, deepen local value addition, promote export competitiveness, and simplify taxation, while keeping the interest of the general public and consumers surmount, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Tuesday.

New customs duty rates are proposed for commodities from life-saving medicines to rare earth minerals and mobiles.

A comprehensive review of the customs duty rate structure will be undertaken over the next six months to rationalise and simplify it for ease of trade, removal of duty inversion and reduction of disputes.

Customs duties on gold and silver have been reduced from 15 per cent to 6 per cent while that on platinum from 15.4 per cent to 6.4 per cent, to enhance domestic value addition in gold and precious metal jewellery in the country.

Further, basic customs duty (BCD) on ferro nickel and blister copper has been removed to reduce the cost of production of steel and copper.

Ankur Gupta, Practice Leader, Indirect Tax at SW India, said the reduction of customs duties on precious metals, including gold, silver, and platinum, to enhance domestic value addition in jewellery manufacturing is another significant move.

“This measure is expected to support the jewellery industry by making raw materials more affordable, thus encouraging local craftsmanship and export growth,” Gupta added.

The Finance Minister said the last six years have seen a three-fold increase in domestic production of mobile phones and almost a hundred-fold jump in exports of mobile phones.

“In the interest of consumers, I now propose to reduce the BCD on mobile phones, mobile PCBA and mobile chargers to 15 per cent,” said the Minister while presenting the Union Budget 2024-25 in Parliament.

The Finance Minister also announced full exemption of customs duties on 25 critical minerals, while reducing BCD on two of them.

This will benefit sectors like space, defence, telecommunications, high-tech electronics, nuclear energy and renewable energy, where these rare earth minerals are critical.

In a further boost to the renewable energy sector, the minister announced the expansion of the list of exempted capital goods for use in the manufacture of solar cells and panels in the country.

“Further, in view of sufficient domestic manufacturing capacity of solar glass and tinned copper interconnect, I propose not to extend the exemption of customs duties provided to them,” the Finance Minister said.

To enhance the competitiveness of seafood exports from the country, the Minister proposed a reduction of BCD on certain broodstock, polychaete worms, shrimp and fish feed to 5 per cent.

Apart from this, various inputs for the manufacture of shrimp and fish feed are exempted from customs duty to further boost seafood exports.

Similar reductions and exemptions are also announced for various leather raw materials to enhance the competitiveness of exports in the leather and textile sectors. Furthermore, the export duty structure on raw hides, skins and leather is proposed to be simplified and rationalised.