Stay updated
India is set to review import tariffs on over 30 items including luxury cars and solar cells, potentially leading to higher imports from the United States, a senior finance ministry official said.
India has accused South Korea’s Kia of evading taxes of $155 million by misclassifying component imports but the carmaker has denied wrongdoing, the latest fight by a foreign automaker with New Delhi over tariffs, according to a document and two sources.
The finance ministry in the Budget has proposed to fix a two-year time limit, extendable by one year, for finalising provisional assessments of export and import consignments with an aim to reduce uncertainty and costs for exporters. Currently, the Customs Act, 1962 lacks a fixed timeline for finalising provisional assessments, causing delays and uncertainties.
In the last Budget Speech 2024, Sitharaman announced customs rate cuts on some items, including mobile phones, charger and some cancer drugs. Apart from this, she had also proposed to comprehensively review the customs duty structure within six months.
The special CBI court for Haryana in Panchkula on Wednesday convicted three officials of the Customs and Central Excise Department after they were found guilty in a case of bribery registered against them.
To help passengers get timely refunds for failed custom payment transactions the customs department has released an advisory outlining the guidelines. These guidelines relate to how passengers can get refunds for failed customs duty payment transactions done through the ICEGATE portal. Do note that this advisory is relevant for only those international travellers, who have brought goods from abroad above the duty free baggage limit of that respective good. For example: Gold above the value worth Rs 50,000 is over the baggage limit and so customs duty must be paid.
The government is likely to go for a major overhaul of the basic customs duty on more than 100 items in the Budget for FY26, in order to align the rates with global trade dynamics and correct the inverted duty structure, according to a senior official.
The Union government is considering introducing a one-time amnesty scheme in the FY26 Budget to be presented on February 1, similar to the Vivad Se Vishwas scheme for income tax, to resolve pending Customs disputes, a senior government official said on condition of anonymity.
The government is reviewing customs duties on over two-dozen items, including gold, and may raise the levy on the yellow metal if it is found that the recent duty reduction triggered its consumption instead of achieving the stated policy objective of domestic value addition, two people aware of the development said.
Amid global economic uncertainties, the industry has urged the government to extend key export-boosting scheme Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products (RoDTEP) for export-oriented units (EOUs) and special economic zones (SEZs) till September-end.