Cancer patients get major relief as basic customs duty has been exempted on 17 essential medicines | Representative image
Budget 2026-27: What gets cheaper and what gets costlier?
Electronic goods, such as microwave ovens and video games, and overseas travel and education, may get cheaper even as coal gets a duty hike
The middle class, or rather, the upper middle class, has a lot to cheer about as several electronic goods, such as microwave ovens and video games, and overseas travel and education, may get cheaper even as coal, frequently used by economically weaker sections for cooking and other purposes, gets a duty hike in the Union Budget 2026.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s ninth Budget also brings relief to cancer patients by exempting basic customs duty on 17 essential medicines. Customs duty on nuclear power project imports have also been exempted till 2035, giving the sector a boost. However, no relief came for income-tax payers.
Also read: Budget 2026-27: Here are 10 key takeaways
What gets cheaper?
- Foreign tour packages
- Overseas education
- Cancer drugs
- Alcoholic liquor scrap and certain minerals
- Footwear and leather goods
- Energy transition equipment
- Microwave ovens and components
- TV components
- Cameras and parts
- Video games manufacturing parts
- Coffee and other vending machines
What gets costlier?
- Penalty for income tax misreporting (now 100 per cent of tax amount)
- Penalty for non-disclosure of movable assets
- Stock options and futures trading costs
- Coal
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