Excise duties on pharma, paper reduced

New Delhi, Feb 29: Finance Minister P Chidambaram has announced a reduction in the excise duty in the growth and employment driving sectors like pharmaceutical and paper.

The excise duty has been lowered to eight per cent from 16 per cent on all goods produced in the pharmaceutical sector, Mr Chidambaram said while presenting the General Budget 2008-09 in the Lok Sabha today. The excise duty on paper, paper board and articles manufactured out of non-conventional raw materials was reduced from 12 per cent to eight per cent.

For clearances up to 3,500 MT, the duty has been reduced to nil from eight per cent, he said.

On certain variety of writing, printing and writing paper, the duty has been lowered to eight per cent from 12 per cent.

UNI