Semiconductor Startup Inputs Have Not Been Made Costlier: Finance Minister

The Finance Minister of India, Nirmala Sitharaman in a statement on Tuesday elucidated that the government has not increased custom duty on components or intermediary items. She particularly talked about the startups in the semiconductor or allied sectors that make use of these components or intermediary items as their primary input. She further went on to explain how the government visited the duty structure at an interaction with citizens on the Atma Nirbhar Economy which the BJP Karnataka unit had organized in Bengaluru. Let’s find out more.

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The Accusations of Price Hike of Components

Recently, some of the startups, in particular, those in the semiconductor and the related sectors have shown concerns that some critical components that they use as inputs will now become expensive. Denying all these suggestions the finance minister explained that the idea of the Atma Nirbhar campaign is not to make goods produced using imported components more expensive. She added that the government cannot make it expensive and that the guiding principle of the Atma Nirbhar campaign is to build capacities in India, scale-up production and make imports costlier of those products that are made and available in India.

Sitharaman talked about the accusation she faced after the recent union budget which claimed that she has hiked customs duties on some products because of which they have become costly. Justifying these accusations, the finance minister stated that wherever duties have gone up, the government has done it consciously only in cases where those products are available locally. Moreover, the government had very carefully applied its mind wherever it has changed the customs duty structure.