This Budget had a bunch of quiet cost tweaks rather than headline tax moves.
What GOT CHEAPER
-17 cancer & rare-disease drugs — basic customs duty exempted (significant relief on treatment costs)
-Medical products for rare conditions and FSMP (specialised nutrition) duty-free
-Mobile phones & tablets — duty cuts on parts to boost local manufacturing
-Microwave ovens — duty removed on key components
-Leather footwear inputs — duty-free import of key materials
-EV battery components and critical minerals — exemptions to help production costs
-Overseas tour packages — TCS cut to 2% from higher slabs
-Foreign education remittances — lower tax on payments for tuition/education abroad
What GOT COSTLIER*
-A different set of items and activities saw higher effective costs:
-Stock market futures & options trading — Securities Transaction Tax raised on these contracts
-Imported goods like umbrellas and certain machines — basic customs duty increases applied
-Industrial and technical equipment (e.g., ATM machines, broadcasting equipment) now faces higher duties
-Coffee roasting/brewing machines — duty applied/raised
-Certain agricultural inputs and chemicals now see higher import costs
-Penalties and compliance costs higher for income-tax misreporting and asset non-disclosure
Do these incremental cost changes actually matter for markets or are they too small to shift demand and earnings meaningfully?
And more importantly, which sectors feel this first: consumers, manufacturers or traders?