New Delhi: The Union Budget 2025 introduces important indirect tax measures to stimulate trade and domestic manufacturing. Key changes include extending time limits for customs assessments and end-use of imported inputs, incentivizing voluntary compliance, reducing or eliminating Basic Customs Duty (BCD) on various goods crucial for exports and domestic production (wet blue leather, Surimi, critical minerals, EV components), and extending existing exemptions for shipbuilding. These measures aim to enhance competitiveness and boost economic growth.
Indirect Tax Measures for Trade Facilitation
- Time-limit of two years to be fixed, extendable by a year, for finalining provisional assessment under the Customs Act.
- Incentivizing Voluntary Compliance: New provision to be introduced to enable importers or exporters, after clearance of goods, to voluntarily declare material facts and pay duty with interest but without penalty.
- Extended Time for End Use: Time limit for end-use of imported inputs to be extended from six months to one year, to provide operational flexibility; such importers will now have to file only quarterly statements instead of monthly statements.
Indirect Tax Measures to Promote Exports
- Time period for handicrafts exports to be extended from six months to one year, further extendable by another three months.
- Wet Blue leather to be fully exempted from Basic Customs Duty (BCD).
- BCD on Frozen Fish Paste (Surimi) to be reduced from 30 per cent to 5 per cent for manufacture and export of its analogue products.
- Time limit for export of foreign origin goods that were imported for repairs of railway goods, to be extended from 6 months to one year, further extendable by one year.
Indirect tax measures to support domestic manufacturing and value addition
- Cobalt powder and waste, scrap of lithium-ion battery, Lead, Zinc and 12 more critical minerals to be exempted from Basic Customs Duty (BCD).
- Two more types of shuttle-less looms to be added to the list of fully exempted textile machinery
- Parts of Open Cells to be exempted from BCD.
- 35 additional goods for EV battery manufacturing, and 28 additional goods for mobile phone battery manufacturing to be added to list of exempted capital goods.
- Exemption of BCD on raw materials, components, consumables or parts for manufacture of ships to be continued for another 10 years.
Trade Budget 2025 Announcements by FM Nirmala Sitharaman: The Union Budget 2025 introduces significant indirect tax measures to stimulate trade and domestic manufacturing. These measures aim to enhance competitiveness and boost economic growth. Biz News Business News – Personal Finance News, Share Market News, BSE/NSE News, Stock Exchange News Today
