Budget duty tweaks bring mixed bag for consumers

Finance Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury today proposed a broad range of changes to import, customs, and regulatory duties in the national budget for fiscal year 2026-27, which could push prices up or down across a wide range of goods.

Experts caution that the actual effect on consumer prices will depend not only on the tax adjustments but also on supply chains, demand, and trader pricing decisions, meaning price movements may not always be proportionate to duty changes.

Prices likely to fall

Consumers may see lower prices for mobile SIM cards, loaclly made mobile sets, cancer medicines, medicine raw materials, heart stents and kidney dialysis equipment.

Computer hardware -- including laptops, printers, and monitors of up to 30 inches -- as well as cinematographic camera, flash memory cards and portable data processing machines are also expected to become cheaper.

Electric vehicles, including chargers, charging stations, electric bus and truck chassis, and battery-run electric three-wheelers, are among the beneficiaries, as are solar panels and parts.

POS machines, composite paper and paperboard, sewage treatment plant equipment, packaging materials, industrial raw materials, biological safety cabinets, lithium-ion batteries, sodium-ion batteries, imported baby food raw materials, mortuary equipment, spices, daily and fish feeds, imported meat, fish and sea-food products, lipstick, face and skin cream, facewash, rice bran oil, dates, locally assembled motor cars, and imported musical instruments may also see price reductions.  

Prices likely to rise

Cigarettes, LP gas cylinders below 5,000-litre capacity, imported motor cars, smart watches, gold bars, and honey are among goods expected to become more expensive. Imported dog and cat food, imported transmitter, imported aluminum foil, washing machines and parts, imported bicycle freewheel, copper tubes and pipes, cold rolled steel; rubber conveyor belts are also set to rise.

Other items facing price increases include Nicotine pouches, nicotine granules.