Animals, vegetables, food products and transportation equipment are some of the products with higher duties.
Chennai: India is likely to cut tariffs on 30 items imported from the US to prevent a trade war. It may also allow easy import of defence and energy products, finds Nomura.
As India sits across the negotiating table with the US, it is likely to cut duties on 30 product lines, including luxury vehicles, electronics, textile and motorcycles.
In the recently announced budget, it reduced import duties on products across electronics and textiles sectors, and also high-end motorcycles. India also offered the Trump administration an early political win by agreeing to take back over 100 illegal immigrants. It is also proactively considering reducing tariffs on over 30 items, including luxury vehicles, solar cells and chemicals, Nomura said.
Animals, vegetables, food products and transportation equipment are some of the products with higher duties.
Import of luxury vehicles valued Rs 2 crore or Rs 3 crore carry a basic import duty of 70 per cent and cess of 40 per cent. However, their imports are quite small in volume terms.
Several products imported from the US currently carry duties lower than 5 per cent, finds Ajay Srivastava, founder, GTRI. “Even the duties on aircrafts and aircraft parts are around 5 per cent with basic duty coming around 3 per cent,” he said.
In the absence of an FTA, India will not be able to provide concessional duties to the US alone. “Lowering the duties will only favour China as the US is not a large player in most of the products. Apart from China, Japan and Korea will also benefit from the duty cut.
