Budget 2008-09 to affect prices of various items

New Delhi, Feb 29 (UNI) Finance Minister P Chidambaram's budgetary proposal for 2008-09 is expected to lead to a reduction in the prices of a large number of items provided customs and excise duty benefits are duly passed on consumers.

Similarly, the prices of number of items are expected to go up following the change in their custom and excise duty structure.

The items which are expected to witness a fall in prices include all pharmaceutical products, small cars, hybrid (dual fuel based) cars, bus chassis, two-wheelers and three-wheelers, books, copies, paper and paper products, printing, wireless data cards, packaged coconut water, tea and coffee mixeers and puffed rice.

bottled drinking water, medical dressing pad, packaging materials, breakfast cereals (corn flakes and oats) ,flush doors and polyester filament yarn.

The picture is, however, not so clear in the case of Cement industry as the budget proposal has tried to rationalise the excise duty structure. However, the imposition of a higher excise slab of Rs 450 per Metric Tonne on Cement Clinker is expected to discourage the import of cement clinker which is currently taking place in a huge way in the country to meet the demand supply gap in cement.

The prices of programmed CDs, DVDs and computer software, non-filter cigarettes as well as filter cigarettes and mobile phones prices are expected to go up.

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