Reversing the trend in Budget 2018, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has increased customs duty on several imported products, a move that would adversely impact a segment of consumers. The Finance Minister also proposed to increase customs duty on mobile phones from 15% to 20%, on some of their parts and accessories to 15% and many other items. The prices of imported high end mobile phones like iPhone would be costlier by 4 to 5%. In December, the government had increased customs duty on imported mobile phones from 10 to 15% and as a result, handset companies like Apple and others had increased the prices of phones by 3 to 3.5%. Now, with another round of customs duty hike, prices would rise further.

Source: The Hindu February 01, 2018 16:35 UTC