The government is likely to announce further customs tariff rationalisation in the Union Budget for 2027-28 as part of its effort to simplify India's tariff structure and facilitate trade, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Thursday.
Speaking at the CD Deshmukh Lecture 2026, organised by NCAER, Sitharaman said the government would continue its exercise of pruning customs duties and reducing the number of tariff slabs.
"There is progress being made. Maybe by the Budget of 2027-28, I would be able to say that, barring a few items, we have rationalised it. Even barring 13 items, it will come to single digit. We will keep it up," she said in response to a question on the government's customs tariff roadmap.
In the Union Budget 2026-27, the government had unveiled a series of measures to streamline the customs duty structure, with the objective of substantially simplifying the tariff regime by 2027-28.
The Budget rationalised customs duties by withdrawing several long-standing exemptions, simplifying the tariff structure and recalibrating import duties across sectors to support domestic manufacturing while reducing cost disadvantages for Indian producers. It also removed customs duty exemptions on items that are already manufactured in India or where imports are negligible.
"To continue weeding out long-continuing customs duty exemptions, I propose to remove certain exemptions on items which are being manufactured in India or where the imports are negligible," Sitharaman had said in her Budget speech.