The Centre on Wednesday raised import duties on 19 “non-essential items” ranging from diamonds and jewellery to radial tyres and household appliances in an attempt to stem the outflow of US dollars and pare the widening current account deficit. The import duty was doubled to 20 per cent on air-conditioners, refrigerators and washing machines of less than 10kg, the finance ministry said. The duty on compressors for ACs and refrigerators, speakers and footwear has been raised to 10 per cent, 15 per cent and 25 per cent, respectively. The articles of jewellery, goldsmith and silver wares will now attract a duty of 20 per cent, up from 15 per cent. In a note released earlier this week in response to speculation of import duty hikes, Bank of America-Merrill Lynch said demand for items like gold does not react to small tariff changes.

Source: The Telegraph September 26, 2018 22:07 UTC