Budget 2014: Colour TV, computers get cheaper; cigarettes, soft drinks costlier

NEW DELHI: Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday spared the common man from price hike by keeping duties on commonly used day-to-day items unchanged but made it costlier for smokers and tobacco consumers with a steep increase in excise rate in tax proposals in Budget 2014-15. Following is a list of what will now become cheaper and what will be costlier: Cheaper * CRT television * LED/LCD TVs especially below 19 inch * Footwear priced between Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 per pair * Soaps * E-book readers * Desktop, laptops and tablets * RO based water purifiers * LED Lights, fixtures and lamps * Pre forms of precious and semi-precious stones * Sports gloves * Branded petrol * Matchbox * Life micro insurance policies * HIV/AIDS drugs and diagnostic kits * DDT insecticides Expensive *Cigarettes * Aerated drinks with sugar * Pan masala * Gutka and chewing tobacco * Jarda scented tobacco * Radio taxi * Imported electronic products * Portable X-ray machines * Half cut/broken diamonds TOI