Imported cars, bikes, cell phones, perfumes costlier

In order to push government's Make in India initiative further, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday hiked duties on a vast list of imported items, including mobile phones, automobiles, gold, diamond, fruit and vegetable juices, and perfumes.

"There is substantial potential for domestic value addition in certain sectors, like food processing, electronics, auto components, footwear and furniture. To further incentivise the domestic value addition and Make in India in some such sectors, I propose to increase customs duty on certain items," Jaitley said in his budget speech for year 2018-19.

"This measure will promote creation of more jobs in the country," he added.

Subsequently, customs duty on completely knocked down (CKD) imports of motor cars and motor cycles has gone up from 10 per cent to 15 per cent.

While customs duty on completely build units (CBU) imports of motor vehicles has gone up to 25 per cent from 20 per cent earlier making them more expensive.

Imported truck and bus radial tyres will become expensive too with a duty of 15 per cent now as against 10 per cent earlier.

Likewise, imported mobile handsets will become costlier as customs duty has been increased from 15 per cent to 20 per cent while some of their parts and accessories will now attract duty of 15 per cent.

Similarly, imported LCD/ LED/ OLED TV panels and other parts of TVs have been charged customs duty of 15 per cent.

Perfumes, toilet water and imported beauty and make up preparations will now attract customs duty of 20 per cent as against 10 per cent earlier.

Customs duty on wrist watches, pocket watches, smart watches/wearable devices and sunglasses have been doubled to 20 per cent.

Finance Minister also doubled customs duty on cut and polished coloured gemstones, diamonds.