The Budget of 2026 will bring in more reforms, especially those pertaining to customs rates, announced Union Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, on Saturday.
The simplification of customs will be comprehensive and entail customs duty rate rationalisation so that there is greater transparency, she said.
“We need a complete overhaul of customs… we need to have customs simplified for people to feel that it is not cumbersome to comply… we need to make it more transparent,” Sitharaman said at a leadership summit in the capital city.
The next big reform agenda of the government is expected to be presented on February 1 in the upcoming Budget.
The minister said the government had earlier removed seven customs tariffs in 2023-24, which was announced in the Budget speech on July 23, 2024. With seven more tariff rates on industrial goods proposed to be eliminated in the upcoming Budget, the total number of tariff slabs would come down to eight, including a zero rate, she informed.
“We have brought down customs duty over the last two years steadily. But in those few items where our rates are considered to be over the optimal level, we have to bring them down as well. Customs is my next big cleaning-up assignment,” she added.
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Sitharaman said this fiscal year’s reform agenda was successful with the Goods and Services tax (GST) rate rationalisation and simplification of the income tax, which helped boost consumption by providing more cash in the hands of the common man.
On the depreciating value of rupee against the dollar, the minister said “it will find its natural level”.
The rupee has depreciated about 5 per cent against the US dollar during the calendar year 2025, having breached the 90-a-dollar level for the first time last week to settle at a fresh all-time low of 90.21 (provisional) on Wednesday.
This was down 25 paise from its previous close, amid sustained foreign fund outflows and higher crude oil prices.
Sitharaman also exuded confidence in the country’s GDP growth to sustain at 7 per cent or above during the current financial year.
The Indian economy grew by a higher-than-expected 8.2 per cent – a six-quarter high – as increased factory production in anticipation of a consumption boost from the GST rate cut helped offset deceleration in farm output.
The growth in the second quarter, compared with 7.8 per cent in the preceding three months and 5.6 per cent in the year-ago period, was aided by a strong showing from the services sector, which clocked double-digit growth.