Union Budget: Duty on chemicals up from 10% to 150%, research labs say ‘thoughtless action’

Union Budget: Funding agencies have already informed scientists that their budgets are fixed with no room to hike allocations.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman hiked customs duty on laboratory chemicals from 10% to 150% in the Union Budget 2024. Owing to this, university research centres are seeing cancelled work orders. This includes all research labs, barring those for physics and maths, as they buy chemicals of international standard from certified suppliers, Times of India reported.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman speaks in the Lok Sabha during the Monsoon Session of Parliament, in New Delhi. (SansadTV)

Funding agencies have already informed scientists that their budgets are fixed with no room to hike allocations. A faculty member said as per TOI, "For my lab, which works in the field of biology, one which is a medium-sized one, the annual spend on chemicals is about ₹45-50 lakh. As per new norms, the tax burden on this spend would be ₹1 crore, and my total bill would be ₹1.5 crore now."

What has Nirmala Sitharaman announced in the Union Budget 2024?

As per the Budget, "The BCD (basic customs duty) rate on lab chemicals classified under HS 9802 00 00 has been increased from 10% to 150%." Owing to this, an order of ₹1.1 lakh inclusive of tax will now touch ₹2.5 lakh which means tax of ₹1.5 lakh.

What experts feels about the announcement?

A senior scientist told the outlet, “The chemicals under this code make up 90-95% of what we use. Even for most basic experiments, we need chemicals like salts of sodium, potassium, magnesium, and buffers. For growing cells, one needs media, and media needs chemicals. Think of chemicals as the most basic ingredient.”

Another said, “They are destroying the research culture in the country with their thoughtless actions. I call these the 5G problems: GST was already a pain and now, GeM, GTE, GFR.”