ACs, refrigerators, washing machines to get costlier, import duty hiked on over 19 items
Live MintNew Delhi: The government on Wednesday raised import duties on 19 non-essential items, including refrigerators, air conditioners, jewellery, diamonds and jet fuel, accounting for annual imports worth ₹ 86,000 crore, to arrest a widening current account deficit and a weakening rupee. The imposition of a 5% import duty on jet fuel is, however, unlikely to increase air fare as India mostly imports crude oil and refines jet fuel locally. Earlier this month, while announcing a slew of measures to increase capital inflows and check rupee volatility, finance minister Arun Jaitley said a broad policy decision had been made to cut non-essential imports and boost exports, against the backdrop of the CAD touching 2.4% in the June quarter. Many of the electronic items have zero customs duty under the World Trade Organization’s first Information Technology Agreement, which limits the government’s ability to raise tariffs although imports of such items have been rising significantly.