Budget 2023-24: Govt mulls basic Customs duty cut to align with FTA

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be presenting the Union Budget on February 1, 2023, in Parliament, outlining her tax and expenditure plans for 2023-24

India plans to cut some of its import duties in Budget 2023-24. The cuts will sit well with a raft of free trade agreements (FTAs) the government is negotiating with several countries. 

Since these cuts will be on basic Customs duty (BCD), they will have a very minuscule impact on collections under integrated goods and services (IGST). The cuts will also not impact the viability of the production-linked incentives (PLIs) the government has rolled out to encourage domestic manufacturing in 13-odd sectors, including electronics, automotive, and textile. 

“Let me say the Customs duty receipts shall not be a significant part