Budget 2025-26: What gets costlier, what is cheaper?

Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday announced major relief for salaried employees, saying no income tax need to be paid by those who are earning up to ₹12 lakhs.

Presenting the Union Budget 2025, she said customs rate would be cut on certain items including mobile phones, chargers and cancer drugs.

Gold, silver

The minister also announced a reduction in customs duties on gold and silver to 6 per cent and that of platinum to 6.4 per cent.

Sitharaman had proposed to remove basic customs duty on ferronickel and blister copper.

Also read: No income tax up to Rs 12 lakh: Know the revised slabs under new regime

What gets cheaper

Thirty-six life-saving drugs have been fully exempted from basic custom duties. These cover cancer and chronic diseases medicines.

In electronic goods, she reduced basic customs duty to 5 per cent for open cells and other components.

Basic customs duty exempted for cobalt powder and waste, scrap of lithium-ion battery, lead, zinc and 12 more critical minerals.

EV battery, shoes

Thirty-five additional goods for EV battery manufacturing and 28 additional goods for mobile phone battery manufacturing to be added to list of exempted capital goods

Leather jacket, shoes, belt, purse has also become cheaper

Customs duty on frozen fish paste (Surimi) to be reduced from 30 per cent to 5 per cent for manufacture and export of its analogue products.

What gets costlier

Basic customs duty increased from 10 per cent to 20 per cent in flat panel displays, which will impact the cost of TVs and mobile phones.