Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is set to present her fourth Budget today for the financial year 2022-23 amid an ongoing third wave of omicron-led coronavirus and volatile stock markets. According to a Hindustan Times report, the Central government is going to revise, custom duties on components or sub part of consumer electronics and mobile phones in order to encourage local manufacturing. Pallavi Singh, vice president of Super Plastronics PVT LTD (SPPL), India brand licensee of Westinghouse TV told HT that the retail sector urges the government to reduce GST on all consumer electronics to reflect those available on raw materials to reduce the disparity.
“With the Budget 2022- 23, we hope and sincerely urge that the government reduce GST on all consumer electronics to reflect those available on raw materials to reduce the disparity, especially since in today’s day and age, consumer electronics are tagged as necessities by all categories of consumers in India,” Singh said.She also added that the GST cut is necessary on televisions during the Budget 2022. “With the current rate of 18 per cent on televisions up to 32 inches only, there is a vast range of televisions that comes under the ambit of the 28 per cent rate. A reduction in the rate to 18 per cent even in televisions up to 43 inches will bring a huge relief,” she added. Avneet Singh Marwah, CEO at SPPL, exclusive brand licensee of Blaupunkt in India, told News 18 that as the country is going through another wave, this is an indication of how important Atma Nirbhar Bharat is. “To boost Indian manufacturing and MSMEs, we need a stable GST tax slab. No product should be above the 18 per cent slab, and they must now encourage consumerism in order to improve market sentiment,” said.