Union Budget 2012-13: Day-to-day items to cost more; luxury cars to be dearer

NEW DELHI: Almost all the manufactured items used in every day life will become costlier, while luxury cars, gold, eating out at restaurants or hotel accommodation will become even more expensive after a steep hike in tax rates proposed in Budget 2012-13.
Cigarettes and bidis will also become dearer as Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has proposed to tax these items more in the Budget for 2012-13.

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With service tax being hiked to 12 per cent from the existing 10 per cent except in a few items, common man will have to pay more while travelling by air or hiring a law firm.

Mukherjee proposed to increase excise duty on all non-petroleum products, excepting a few, to 12 per cent from the existing 10 per cent.

On the other hand, items like imported LCD and LED TV panels of about 20 inches will have lesser increase in price due to excise duty hike. Customs duty on these items has been removed. Similar is the case with LEDs used for making lamps.

Prices of life saving drugs, probiotics and iodine have been cushioned from a steep rise as import duties on these items have been reduced.

Branded garments will escape the impact of increase in excise duty as abatement has been provided.

Gold and platinum will also become more expensive as the customs duty in imported standard bar has been hiked to 4 per cent from 2 per cent. The duty on non-standard gold bar has been hiked to 10 per cent from 5 per cent earlier.

Mobile phone parts will become cheaper as excise duty has been cut to 2 per cent from the existing 10 per cent.

In the budget, Mukherjee proposed increasing the customs duty on import of completely built cars and Sport Utility Vehicles to 75 per cent from 60 per cent (3,000cc engine capacity for petrol and 2,500 cc for diesel vehicles).