Nirmala Sitharaman Says Tariff King Tag ‘Outdated’, India Cuts Customs Duties To Boost Exports
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday rejected the allegation that India is a “tariff king” saying that her latest Budget brought down the number of tariff rates to eight and the effective rate is “far lower”.
“For those who still believe in the commentary which was made in the US that India may be the tariff king…I want two things to be remembered. Given our system of things, we seek parliamentary approval for deciding on the tariff rate…the permission to go up to a certain level but effectively you are at a far lower level,” she said.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly accused India of being a very high tariff nation. Trump had called India a “tariff king” and a “big abuser”.
She said that the number of tariff rates was brought down to eight in the 2025-26 Budget with a view to boosting domestic manufacturing and promoting exports.
The finance minister made the remarks while inaugurating Trade Conclave by India Exim Bank here.
She further said, “our procedures have given us the not-so-desirable picture of being very very restrictive and regressive about tariff. Many of them are already far lower than the rate at which the gazette notification came after the approval of Parliament.” In the February Budget, Sitharaman had removed seven tariff rates. This was over and above the seven tariff rates removed in 2023-24 budget.
“So for those of us who still think there is still a tariff story in India, I want this to be clear, there are only just eight (tariff rates) including the zero rate. So we have done a lot of reforms in reducing the burden on trade by cutting down tariffs to support manufacturing and value addition, promote exports and to facilitate trade,” she said.
With the significant reduction, India’s average customs duty rate came down to 10.66 per cent from 11.65 per cent. It has moved closer to the same levels as prevalent in the Southeast Asian countries.
The 10-nation bloc ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
