Steep hike in Customs Duty on Chinese toys

Customs Duty on a range of articles like household goods, electrical appliances, auto parts, footwear, furniture and some mobiles phone parts has been raised in the Union Budget. This has been done keeping in view the interests of the MSME segment, to facilitate ease of doing business, secure trade borders and to keep uncontrolled dumping under check. For wood, metal and plastic toys, the ministry has suggested increase in import duty to up to 100 per cent from the current 20 per cent. Import of these toys increased to $304 million in 2018-19 from $281.82 million in 2017-18 from China and Hong Kong. S. Jaikumar, country head, Swamy Associates said, “Raising Customs Duty is aimed at helping MSMEs in the country as dumping from China has been hurting them. This will boost domestic industry, local employment and eventually impact GDP.” The Customs Duty mop-up for FY 2020-21 is seen at ?1.38 lakh crore.