During the Union Budget 2022 speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced concessions on the customs duty imposed on mobile phones and other electronics to facilitate domestic manufacturing.

Sitharaman explained how the industry is growing rapidly. She also added that the 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. Furthermore, she also talked about the duty concessions given to the transformer of mobile phone chargers and camera lens of mobile camera module and certain other items. This will ultimately allow domestic manufacturing of high growth electronic items.

In a statement, Mr Avneet Singh Marwah, CEO at SPPL, Exclusive Brand Licensee of Blaupunkt in India said, I would rate this budget on an average. As expected, the government hasn’t changed any duties on consumer electronics. This will help the industry to have stable growth, despite the overachieving GST collection from the past 4 months.

Also read : Union Budget 2022: Here’s what Industry has to say

While concessions are introduced for manufacturing, a tax announcement for crypto was also made. Sitharaman announced a tax of 30% on cryptocurrency along with a statement saying, “There has been a phenomenal increase in transactions in virtual digital assets. The magnitude and frequency of these transactions are made it imperative to provide for a specified tax regime, accordingly for the taxation of virtual digital assets. Therefore, I propose to provide that any income from transfer of any virtual digital asset shall be taxed at the rate of 30%.”

“No deduction in respect of any expenditure or elements shall be allowed while computing such income except the cost of acquisition for loss from the transfer of virtual digital assets cannot be set off against any other income,” she added.

Sitharaman announced in the assembly that the Central Bank Digital Currency will come this year, regulated by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). It is going to be the first Central digital currency of India. Furthermore, she added information about e-passports and how they will come with embedded chips and futuristic technology in 2022-2023. It will facilitate overseas travel by the citizens. Additionally, Drone Shakti was also introduced during the session. It is introduced to help commercialise the use of drones in different industries and will be promoted with the help of startups.

Also read : Electronic passport announced in Budget 2022: All details inside