Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday announced that the import of defence equipment that are not being manufactured in India are being exempted from basic customs duty.

"My proposal is driven with the objective of securing our borders achieving higher domestic value addition through Make in India reducing import, protection to MSME and promoting clean energy curbing non-essential import and correcting inversions," she said while presenting the Union Budget for 2019-20 in Parliament.

"Defence has an immediate requirement of modernization and upgradation. This is a national priority. For this purpose, import of defence equipment that are not being manufactured in India are being exempted from basic customs duty," Sitharaman said.

The Finance Minister also announced an increase in basic customs duty.

"Make in India is a cherished goal in order to provide a level playing field to domestic industries basic customs duty is being increased on items such as cashew kernels, PVC, vinyl fluorine, tiles, metal fittings, mountings for furniture, certain kinds of synthetic rubber, marble slabs, optical fibre cable, CCTV cameras, IP camera, digital and network video recorders and so on," she said.

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