Union Budget 2025: What's cheaper and what's costlier after FM Sitharaman's announcements; full list here

New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman unveiled her eighth consecutive Union Budget for the fiscal year 2025-2026. Below are the goods and services that have seen price changes, either becoming cheaper or more expensive for consumers.

Items That Became Cheaper:

1. The government has proposed to exempt Basic Customs Duty on 37 additional medicines. Additionally, 36 drugs used for cancer and rare diseases will also be exempted from Basic Customs Duty.

2. The Centre has also recommended a full exemption on Basic Customs Duty for cobalt products, LED items, zinc, lithium-ion battery scrap, and 12 critical minerals.

3. Furthermore, the government has extended the Basic Customs Duty exemption on raw materials used in ship manufacturing for another 10 years.

4. The Basic Customs Duty on fish pasteurii will be reduced from 30% to 5%.

5. A new scheme to further promote handicraft exports was also announced. Lastly, wet blue leather will be fully exempted from Basic Customs Duty.

6. Leather goods: Wet Blue leather to be fully exempted from Basic Customs Duty.

Items That Became Costlier:

1. The government has proposed an increase in the Basic Customs Duty on interactive flat panel displays, raising it from 10% to 20%. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stated that this move aims to correct the inverted duty structure.

2. The exemption on 82 tariff lines currently under cess has been removed as part of the Social Welfare Surcharge.

To promote domestic production of technical textile products such as agro-textiles, medical textiles and geo textiles at competitive prices, the Finance Minister has proposed to add two more types of shuttle-less looms to the list of fully exempted textile machinery.

She also proposed to revise the BCD rate on knitted fabrics covered by nine tariff lines from "10 per cent or 20 per cent" to "20 per cent or Rs 115 per kg, whichever is higher".