Budget 2018: Steep Hike in Customs Duty Will Impact Price of Toys, Say Experts

Finance minister Arun Jaitley also increased customs duty on mobile phones and television sets

New Delhi, Feb 2: Reacting sharply to the increase in customs duty by 20 per cent in the Union budget 2018, toys and sports goods industry expects that the prices of toys will witness a steep rise in coming days. Ishmeet Singh, Country Manager of the famous toys making company Mattel said the industry has already been struggling with recent changes including Goods and Services Tax. Increased rates of customs duty will only trigger an increase of 20 per cent in prices of toys.

“As per the Budget 2018, there has been a substantial increase in customs duty to 20% for the category of Toys and Sports Goods. This combined with the other policy changes that have been implemented over the last 6 months, viz. higher rates of taxes under GST rates and stricter import regulations, will result in an overall increase in the price of toys by more than 20%,” said Singh.

He added, “While the government of India has recognized the importance of promoting the critical role of play in the overall development of a child, these policy changes might prove to be detrimental to this vision.”

This apart, finance minister Arun Jaitley also increased customs duty on mobile phones and television sets.”To further intensify domestic value addition and Make in India (programme)in these sectors, I propose to increase the customs duty on certain items… I propose to increase customs duty on mobile phones to 20 per cent from 15 per cent and on some other parts and accessories to 15 per cent,” Jaitley said.