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Union Budget 2008-09  »   Story
Import duties likely to go down
Indo-Asian News Service
New Delhi, February 16, 2008
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India's upcoming budget for 2008-09 may see some tweaking in the import duty structure, a top official of the Commerce and Industry Ministry said on Saturday.

"Import duties need to be cut in certain areas such as raw material and inverted duties. We cannot reduce everything. Inverted duties have to be addressed at this time as lot of trade agreements are coming," the official said.

"The inverted duty structure has to be dealt with now and we are looking at addressing it seriously," the source said.

The Indian industry has also been pressing for a considerable reduction in the import duties for a long time now.

The import duty reduction as a result of various bilateral agreements has adversely affected sectors such as textiles.

Other sectors like chemicals, electronics, auto components, tyres and electrical equipment have also been affected due to various bilateral trade agreements signed by India.

The inverted duty structure impacts the domestic industry adversely as it has to pay a higher price for the raw material in terms of duty, the finished product on the other hand lands at lower duty and costs less.

The government had in 2006 set up a committee under Anwar-ul Hoda to examine the inverted duty structure. Even though, the committee's report was submitted before budget last year, its recommendations were not implemented.

Sector Analysis
AUTO
Negotiating a rough patch
Demand growth is expected to be buoyant driven by new vehicle launches, likely softening of interest rates and continued growth on the export front.
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Railway Budget
Lalu presents people's budget, slashes fares
The minister announced launch of several new trains and reduction in fares across all classes amid chaos by Opposition in Parliament.
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Features
A budget for Bharat
Buoyant tax revenues a lower fiscal deficit and an economy that's in top gear permit the FM to pump big money into agriculture and the social sector. Those efforts might help at the hustings, too.
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Economic Survey
'Expand telecom infrastructure, R&D'
"With rapid growth of telecom network, there is a need to further expand the infrastructure and research and development," the survey said.
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Surfers' comments
This is a very good budget, especially for agriculture and education. P Chidambaram is the best.
- By Saravanan P (plsharavanan@rediffmail.com)
If you can waive Rs 50,000 crore for farmers what about the tax on housing loan interest? That should also have been reduced.
- Chandra Shekar V (rilshekar@yahoo.co.in)
Please tax the street hawkers and give relief to the salaried persons.
- Rajaram (rajaramghurup@rediffmail.com)
This is the worst budget the finance minister has ever presented. The backbone of the country's economy is the transport but he completely missed it out.
- Jayakaanthan A (jayakaanthan@gmail.com)
The budget is sure to augment growth and will also lessen the volatility of the stock markets.
- Sidharth Paul (sidharth.paul@gmail.com)
Overall, the budget is satisfactory but the health sector should have been given greater importance.
- Ankit Chaudhary (chaudharyankit1987@gmail.com)
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Business Today's Budget edition
Editorial: Predictably populist budget
Special: Something for everyone...
Column: All for the common man
Exclusive interview with the FM
Maintaining the growth story
The Finance Minister defends Budget 2008 and the Rs 60,000 crore loan waiver doled out to farmers in an exclusive interview to Business Today's Sanjoy Narayan and R Sridharan.
VOX CEOs
"Total reduction of excise duties by 2% will give a welcome boost to the manufacturing sector. Also, the exemption of specified parts of set-top boxes from customs duties is commendable".
- Rakesh Bharti Mittal, Vice Chairman, Bharti Enterprises
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Beginner’s guide to budget
Union Budget is an estimate of the Government of India's revenue and expenditure for the end of a particular fiscal year, which usually runs from April 1 to March 31. Read on...
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