Budget 2017: What's cheaper, what's expensive

NEW DELHI: Though Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his budget speech for 2017-18 on Wednesday said his proposals on excise and customs duties will not result in any significant loss or gain to the exchequer, the fine print suggests a host of items can become either cheaper or dearer.

Items like LED lamps, solar panels, printed circuit boards for mobiles, micro ATMs, finger-print machines and Iris scanners will potentially become cheaper. On the other hand, silver coins, cigarettes and tobacco, bidis, pan masala, goods imported through parcels, water filter membranes and cashew nuts will become expensive. "Centre, through the Central Board of Excise & Customs, shall continue to strive to achieve the goal of implementation of GST (Goods and Services Tax) as per schedule without compromising the spirit of co-operative federalism," Jaitley said while presenting the Budget. "Implementation of GST is likely to bring more taxes both to central and state governments because of widening of tax net. I have preferred not to make many changes in current regime of Excise & Service Tax because the same are to be replaced by GST soon," he added. The following is a list of items that will turn costlier:

• Cigarettes, pan masala, cigar, cheroots, bidis, chewingtobacco
• LED lamp components
• Cashew nuts (roasted and salted)
• Aluminum ores and concentrates
• Polymer coated MS tapes used in manufacturing of optical fibres
• Silver coins and medallions
• Printed circuit board used in making mobile phones

Following is a list items that will turn cheaper:

• Booking railway tickets online
• RO membrane elements for household usage
• LNG- Liquefied natural gas
• Solar tempered glass used in solar panels
• Fuel cell based power generating systems
• Wind operated energy generator
• Vegetable tanning extracts used in making leather products
• POS machines card and fingerprint readers
• Group insurance for Defence services.