Union Budget 2025: Cancer & rare diseases drugs to become cheaper, government to increase BCD on interactive flat panel display; check what gets cheaper & costlier

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her budget speech today (February 1) disclosed the products that will become cheaper and costlier in fiscal 2025-26. 

In this article, we will curate a list of items that will become costly or cheaper. It will help you to understand the impact that going to have on your daily or monthly expenses.

Products that will be cheaper in FY 25-26

• Government to continue exemption of BCD on raw materials, components used for manufacturing of ships for another 10 years, says Finance Minister.
• Government exempts cobalt product, LED, zinc, lithium-ion battery scrap and 12 critical minerals from basic Customs Duty.
• 36 drugs for cancer, rare diseases to be exempt from basic customs duty, says Finance Minister.
• Government to reduce basic customs duty (BCD) to 5 per cent from 30 per cent on fish pasteurii.
• 35 additional goods for ev battery & 28 for mobile phone battery manufacturing added to bcd exemption list. This reduction in duties will help lower production costs, benefiting both the ev and smartphone sectors.

Products that will be costlier in FY 25-26

To rectify inverted duty structure, govt to increase basic customs duty on interactive flat panel display to 20 per cent to 10 per cent. This means, prices for interactive displays used in education and business may rise.