Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her budget 2023 speech, announced a relief in customs duty on the import of certain parts including camera lens, besides the continuation of the concessional duty on lithium-ion cells for batteries for another year. Similarly, the customs duty on parts of open cells of TV panels has been reduced by 2.5 percent.
Vijay Kumar Mikkilineni, head of marketing, TCL India, believes that TVs with bigger panels will now come with more aggressive prices as he said, “A 2.5% decrease in customs duty will help in reducing the prices of the TV panels, which benefits the Indian consumers. Also, the no tax till 7 lakhs will benefit the middle income group which is the largest consumer base in India and we expect the increase in demand for 32, 43, and 55 inch segments . The demand generation and buying increases with these budget announcements”.
On the other hand, Deepak Bansal, vice president – home appliances and AC, LG India, highlighted that the reduction in tax slabs will create more disposable income and will boost the overall business, especially in entry level products – something that was lacking with the consumers’ increasing demand for premium products.
With EV adoption witnessing a robust growth in the country, particularly in the last two years, the central government , in its last budget before the Lok Sabha elections next year, has also provided a customs duty exemption on the import of capital goods and machinery required for manufacturing of lithium-ion cells for batteries used in electric vehicles.
“Electric mobility is the future, and policy support is essential for the growth of our EV ecosystem. The announcement in the Union Budget of extending concessional duty for lithium-ion cells will give an impetus to Indian manufacturers.” noted Narayan Subramaniam, co-founder and CEO of Ultraviolette Automotive.
“Extension of customs duty exemption for the manufacture of lithium-ion batteries and removal of customs duty on imported machinery used for manufacturing Li-ion batteries are welcome initiatives as these will help in boosting the demand for EV’s.
The policy on the replacement of old polluting vehicles should accelerate the transition towards electric vehicles.”, said Uday Narang, founder and chairman, Omega Seiki Mobility.
Chetan Maini, co-founder and chairman, Sun Mobility feels that release of the Battery Swapping Policy covering subsidies and GST rate rationalization from 18% to 5% on EV batteries would have added further to the green growth agenda.
The government has also announced an outlay of Rs 35,500 crores in energy transition, which, Nagesh Basavanhalli, executive vice chairman, Greaves Cotton believes will play a key role in accelerated transition towards an all-electric ecosystem. “The country’s journey towards decarbonization gets further momentum with the National Green Hydrogen Mission, as the Rs 19,700 crore capital outlay will reduce dependency on fossil fuels and encourage more innovations in use cases of clean energy and renewables.”, he noted.
