Union Budget 2025-26: What get costlier, cheaper
New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget 2025-26 on Saturday. She has announced significant changes in customs duties and exemptions in the budget, affecting multiple sectors. While life-saving drugs, critical minerals, and EV manufacturing components will see price reductions, flat panel displays are set to face higher costs.
Items that have become cheaper:
* 36 life-saving drugs fully exempted from Basic Customs Duty.
* 28 additional goods for mobile phone battery production to come in list of exempted capital goods.
* Cobalt powder and waste, scrap of lithium-ion battery, lead, Zinc and 12 more critical minerals exempted from BCD.
* Exemption on raw materials for manufacturing ships was extended for another 10 years.
* BCD on Platinum findings have also been reduced from 25 percent to 6.4 percent.
* Raw materials used for manufacture of wired headset, microphone and receiver, USB cable, etc., will be exempted from BCD.
* Customs duty reduced to 5 percent for Open-Cell Displays.
* BCD exempted on raw materials for manufacturing ships for another 10 years.
* Customs duty on fish paste slashed from 30 percent to 5 percent. Frozen fish now taxed at 5 percent, down from 30 percent. Fish hydrolysates duties cut from 15 percent to 5 percent.
Items that have become costlier:
* Knitted fabrics
* BCD increased for flat panel display from 10 percent to 20 percent, impacting TVs and projectors.
While presenting her eighth consecutive Budget, she outlined that the Union Budget 2025 will prioritise the poor, youth, farmers, and women.
The Budget comes in the backdrop of the GDP growth rate projected to fall to four-year low of 6.4 percent in the current financial year. The Economic Survey 2024-25 tabled by the finance minister in both Houses has estimated India's GDP growing in the range of 6.3-6.8 percent in FY26.
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Sujit Nair raises concerns over speculation of DMK-AIADMK understanding to block TVK
Chennai: Journalist and political commentator Sujit Nair has expressed concern over speculation that the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam could explore a post-poll understanding to prevent Vijay-led Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam from forming the government in Tamil Nadu.
In a social media post, Sujit Nair said the election verdict in Tamil Nadu reflected a clear public demand for political change and argued that the mandate should be respected irrespective of political preferences.
Referring to reports and political discussions surrounding a possible understanding between the DMK and AIADMK, he said he hoped such developments remained only speculative conversations and did not turn into reality.
Nair stated that if such an alliance were to take shape, it would raise serious questions about ideological politics in the country. He said TVK had emerged through a democratic electoral process and that the legitimacy to govern in a parliamentary democracy comes from the people’s verdict.
According to him, attempts to prevent an electoral winner from forming the government through unexpected political arrangements may be constitutionally valid, but many people could view them as politically opportunistic.
He further said that such a move could particularly affect the political image of the DMK, which has historically projected itself around ideology, social justice and opposition politics. Nair said that in ideological terms, the DMK appeared closer to TVK than to the AIADMK, and joining hands with its long-time political rival only to remain in power could weaken its broader political narrative.
He added that the same questions would apply to the AIADMK as well, as the party had spent decades positioning itself against the DMK and such an arrangement could create discomfort among its cadre and supporters.
Drawing a comparison with Maharashtra politics in 2019, Nair said he had expressed similar views when the Shiv Sena formed an alliance with the Indian National Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party after the Assembly elections.
He said post-poll alliances between long-standing political rivals often create a public perception that ideology and electoral mandates become secondary when political power equations come into play.
Nair also said such developments increase public cynicism towards politics and reinforce the belief among voters that ideology is often sidelined after elections.
He maintained that the Tamil Nadu verdict was emphatic and said respecting both the spirit and substance of the mandate was important for the credibility of democratic politics.
