Budget 2017 highlights: Here’s what’s cheaper and what’s dearer!

NEW DELHI: Though Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his budget speech for 2017-18 on Wednesday said his proposals on excise and customs duties will not result in any significant loss or gain to the exchequer, the fine print suggests a host of items can become either cheaper or dearer.

Items like LED lamps, solar panels, printed circuit boards for mobiles, micro ATMs, finger-print machines and Iris scanners will potentially become cheaper.

On the other hand, silver coins, cigarettes and tobacco, bidis, pan masala, goods imported through parcels, water filter membranes and cashew nuts will become expensive.

“Centre, through the Central Board of Excise & Customs, shall continue to strive to achieve the goal of implementation of GST (Goods and Services Tax) as per schedule without compromising the spirit of co-operative federalism,” Jaitley said while presenting the Budget.

“Implementation of GST is likely to bring more taxes both to central and state governments because of widening of tax net. I have preferred not to make many changes in current regime of Excise & Service Tax because the same are to be replaced by GST soon,” he added.

The following is a list of items that will turn costlier:

CHEAPER

Vegetable tanning extracts, namely, Wattle  extract and Myrobalan fruit extract

Liquefied Natural Gas

Printed circuit boards for mobiles

Micro ATMs

Finger-print machines

Iris scanners

LED bulbs, lumps

Nylon mono filament yarn

Hot Rolled Coils

Solar Panels

POS card reader

DEARER

Silver coins

Cigarettes and tobacco

Paper rolled bidis

Pan Masala

Tobacco

Goods imported through parcels

Water filter membranes

Cashew nuts