“No major initiatives have been announced. As far as slashing peak custom duties are concerned this is part of WTO agreement to bring them at par with rates in ASEAN countries,” Prof B B bhattacharya, Vice-Chancellor, Jawaharla Nehru University, said.

Prof Jayati Ghosh of JNU said the good news was that collection from taxes has gone up but Finance minister has missed a chance to provide appropriate allocations for the crucial sectors like education and health.

Dr Nagesh Kumar of Research and Information System (RIS) termed the new import duty regime as ‘calibrated liberalisation’ whereby protection has been provided to vulnerable industries.

But new regime is significant as the protection has been given to those sector which have employment generation potential like textile industries and food processing industry, he said.

Asked about the net impact of slashed custom duties alongwith imposition of Counter Vailing Duty (CVD) of four per cent on all import purchases, Bhattacharya said protection has been given to vanaspati and vegetable industries but did not elaborate.

Jayati Ghosh was extremely critical of custom duty cut saying the industry needed protection.