Import duty hiked on 19 items including ACs, fridges to curb current account deficit
New Delhi, Sep 26 : A range of imported products including air conditioners, household refrigerators, washing machines and radial car tyres will get costlier with the government on Wednesday hiking the basic customs duty in a bid to curb the import of non-essential items to check the burgeoning current account deficit.
A notification that will be effective from the midnight of Wednesday was issued by the Revenue Department hiking the import duty on 19 items whose total value of import in 2017-18 was about Rs 86,000 crore.
This follows a high-level meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week in the light of the falling value of the rupee and the pressure on foreign exchange outgo in which it was decided to take five measures to curb the widening current account deficit by cutting non essential imports.
The import duty on air conditioners, household refrigerators and washing machines less than 10 kg has been hiked from 10 to 20 per cent.
The duty on compressors for air conditioners and refrigerators has been upped from 7.5 to 10 per cent while speakers and radial car tyres will attract a 15 per cent duty as against 10 per cent at present.
Footwear will now attract 25 per cent duty, 5 per cent up from 20 per cent while non-industrial diamond (other than rough diamonds), that is cut and polished diamond will attract 7.5 per cent as against 5 per cent.
The duty on diamonds -- semi-processed, half-cut or broken -- large grown diamonds and cut and polished coloured gem stones will go up from 5 per cent to 7.5 per cent while on articles of jewellery and parts thereof, of precious metal or of metal clad with precious metal, will go up from 15 per cent to 20 per cent.
Imported speakers will attract a higher duty of 15 per cent, up by 5 per cent, while articles of goldsmith or silversmith wares and parts thereof of precious metal or of metal clad with precious metal will go up from 15 per cent to 20 per cent.
Plastic bath, shower bath, sinks and wash basins, articles of plastics for conveyance and packing, tableware, kitchenware and other household items of plastics, and miscellaneous items of plastics such as office stationery and decorative sheets will attract 15 per cent duty as against 10 per cent at present.
Trunks, suitcases, executive cases, briefcases, travel bags and other bags will attract 15 per cent duty as against 10 per cent at present, and aviation turbine fuel will go up from 0 per cent to 5 per cent.
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Mathura boat capsize tragedy: Death toll climbs to 13
Mathura (UP)(PTI): With the recovery of two more bodies on Sunday, the death toll in the boat capsize incident in the Yamuna river in Mathura has climbed to 13, officials said on Sunday.
Search for three more missing persons is underway.
Superintendent of Police (Rural) Suresh Chandra Rawat said renewed search efforts led to the recovery of the body of a college student, identified as Dinki Bansal, near Devraha Baba Ghat and that of a man identified as Rishabh Sharma approximately 3 km away from the accident site.
The incident occurred on Friday afternoon when a boat carrying over two dozen tourists, primarily from Punjab, hit a floating drum of a pontoon bridge and capsized near Kesi Ghat in Vrindavan.
Most of the victims were from Jagraon and Dugri areas of Ludhiana district.
Teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) along with the district administration and local police were actively engaged in the search for the missing pilgrims.
However, strong currents of the Yamuna river and the significant depth of the water at the ghats are proving a hindrance.
Circle Officer (Mant) Sandeep Singh said the Yamuna river stretch extending from Keshi Ghat to Gokul Barrage has been divided into seven sectors.
The search for the missing individuals will now be conducted within this specific 20-square-km zone. A Station House Officer (SHO) has been designated as the in-charge for each sector.
Acting on the orders of the DIG (Agra Range), seven SHOs will oversee operations across the seven sectors of river Yamuna.
Giving details about the operation, Additional District Magistrate (Finance and Revenue) Pankaj Kumar Verma, citing NDRF officials, on Saturday had said although the search for the missing persons is currently focused within a 14-km radius from the spot where the boat had capsized, there is a possibility that they may have been swept much further downstream.
SHO of Vrindavan police station Sanjay Pandey said boat operator Pappu was arrested late on Friday night.
He is accused of failing to provide life jackets to passengers before allowing them to board the boat, and operating the boat at high speed. This resulted in the boat losing control and colliding with a pontoon bridge's drum, which led to the accident, officials said.
Police have registered a case and also arrested the contractor, Narayan Sharma, responsible for the repair work on the pontoon bridge.
Rawat said that on Friday evening, police registered a case under section 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) against the boatman Pappu (alias Dauji) and Sharma, and subsequently arrested them.
According to the case details, Pappu's boat did not have any safety equipment or provisions whatsoever.
Moreover, despite repeated pleas from pilgrims, Pappu operated the boat at high speed. By the time he realised the danger upon approaching the pontoons of the bridge, it was already too late.
Consequently, after colliding with a pontoon drum, the boat lost control and capsized. It has also come to light that he is among those operators who have not obtained the requisite license to operate a boat.
Sharma was carrying out the work of dismantling and reassembling the pontoon bridge without providing any prior notification.
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