Budget 2018: Arun Jaitley raises rates to boost Make in India

In his Budget speech, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said there was potential for domestic value addition in certain sectors

The government is hoping to garner Rs 60 billion by raising import duties on about 50 items — ranging from phones and TV parts to juices and edible oil — in the Budget for 2018-19. The customs duty hike in the range of 5 to 10 percentage points is aimed to encourage local manufacturing under the government’s flagship Make in India programme launched in 2014.

This is the second hike in two months by the government, as it aims to achieve twin objective of boosting domestic manufacturing and garnering additional revenue amid floundering goods and services tax (GST) collections. There