Budget 2024: Check list of what's cheaper & dearer in last budget of PM Modi's second term

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Interim Budget 2024 in the Parliament today, February 1, which kept the major focus on India's macroeconomic growth and fiscal consolidation. This was the sixth budget presented by Sitharaman and the last one of Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government's second term.

Since 2024 is an election year, with Lok Sabha Elections expected in April-May, the finance minister unveiled an Interim Budget or a Vote on Account in February, rather than a comprehensive annual budget. After the formation of the new government, the new full Budget is expected in July this year.

Check live updates: Budget 2024 LIVE Updates: Govt has the trust, confidence, blessings of people, says FM Sitharaman

With the arrival of the Budget session, tax-paying citizens are curious to know what items have become more affordable and which ones are probably going to become more expensive. However, no announcement on what gets cheaper and more expensive was made by the Finance Minister in her 2024 Union Budget speech.

Even though no change in prices were announced during the budget speech by the finance minister today, the central government on January 31 that import duty on parts used for mobile phone manufacturing to 10 per cent from 15 per cent. This was done to push mobile phone manufacturing in India amid the country's larger focus on exports and becoming a player in global supply chains.

The government lowered the duties for inputs used in making battery covers, main lens, back cover, antennae, SIM sockets and other mechanical items of plastic and metal, it said in a notification.

Additionally, ahead of the budget presentation today, the central government also reduced jet fuel or aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices by ₹1,221 per kilolitre in the national capital, which marks the fourth consecutive monthly reduction in the commodity.

Following the latest adjustment, ATF prices for domestic airlines are now at ₹1,00,772.17 per kilolitre in Delhi, ₹1,09,797.33 per kilolitre in Kolkata, ₹94,246.00 per kilolitre in Mumbai, and ₹1,04,840.19 per kilolitre in Chennai.

In last year's budget session, TVs, smartphones, compressed gas, shrimp feed, lab-grown diamonds, were among some of the items that got cheaper, while cigarettes, air travel, textiles were some commodities that got costlier.