New Delhi: Presenting the Union Budget for 2022-2023, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said that customs duty for electronics components is being calibrated, in a bid to strengthen local manufacturing in the country. Sitharaman unveiled the Budget for the fiscal 2022-2023 today (February 1). According to the FM, the manufacturing of electronics has been growing rapidly in the country. She proposed customs duty changes on components such as wearables, hearables such as headphones and hearing aids and electronic smart metres.
"Customs duty rates are being calibrated to provide a graded rate structure to facilitate domestic manufacturing of wearable devices, hearable devices and electronic smart meters," Sitharaman said while presenting her fourth Budget.
"This will enable domestic manufacturing of high-growth electronic items," the FM added. She also said that the duty concessions are also being given to parts of transformer of mobile phone chargers, camera lens of mobile camera modules, and certain other items.
Sitharaman also announced that an Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, and Comics (AVGC) task force will be set up as these areas hold a lot of potential to employ the youth.
The AVGC promotion task force will work with all stakeholders to recommend ways to realise the objective and build domestic capacity to serve the country's markets and meet global demands. The central government has been intending to help this sector grow for some time. Earlier in 2020, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had said it would set up AVGC Centre of Excellence in the wake of the belief that gamification and animation will become a major export for India and also become a wealth generator.