Cars, SUVs and two-wheelers along with other consumer items like TVs and refrigerators are set to become cheaper with Finance Minister P Chidambaram today lowering excise duties to lighten the burden on middle class ahead of the upcoming general elections.
Although he did not propose any increase in taxes on other consumer products, a rationalisation of excise duties for all categories of mobile phones will lead to a marginal increase in the prices of entry level mobile phones costing less than Rs 2,000.
"To give relief to the automobile industry which is registering unprecedented negative growth, I propose to reduce excise duty..," Chidambaram said while presenting the Interim Budget for 2014-15.
As per his proposal, excise duty on small cars, motorcycles, scooters and commercial vehicles has been cut to 8 per cent from 12 per cent earlier.
Likewise, the Sports Utility Vehicles will attract 24 per cent excise duty, down from 30 per cent earlier, while large cars that used to attract excise of 27 per cent will now be levied only 24 per cent. Moreover, the excise duty on mid-sized cars will be 20 per cent from 24 per cent earlier.
While giving sops to the automobile sector, Chidambaram said: "I propose to make appropriate reductions in excise duty on chassis and trailers."
With the Finance Minister proposing a reduction in excise on capital goods and consumer non-durables on all goods falling under Chapter 84 and 85 of schedule of the Central Excise Tariff Act up to June 2014, many consumer items are set to become cheaper.
These include TVs, refrigerators, computers, printers, keyboards, mice, hard disks, scanners, vacuum cleaners, dish washers, water coolers, torch lights, digital cameras, hair dryers, electric irons, microwave oven, MP3 players and DVD players.
