Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has announced a major GST rate cut, approving a two-tier structure of 5% and 18%. The reform, set to be implemented from September 22, is aimed at easing the tax burden on the common man.

India's tax makeover: What gets cheaper and costlier?

London seems to be turning too pricey for its citizens. In an unbelievable incident, a couple flew to Milan just to grab some tasty sandwiches, as they found that travelling to London for the same was comparatively costlier.&nbsp;

49-year-old Sharon Summer made the decision to travel with her partner Dan Puddifoot to another country just to buy some sandwiches.&nbsp;

Earlier, the two had decided to go on a morning meal together. However, when they checked the roundtrip ticket from Cranfield, Bedfordshire, to London, it cost approximately £35 ($45) and £50 ($64.29) and the travel time was nearly an hour and a half.

Also Read:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/uk-government-strikes-pay-deal-with-junior-doctors-to-end-nhs-walkouts-745383">UK government strikes pay deal with junior doctors to end NHS walkouts</a>

But the flight to Italy's Milan only cost £14 ($18). So, they opted for Milan, where they explored the city, ate sandwiches and flew back home at night.&nbsp;

<h2>Another 'thrifty' woman opts for a day trip to Milan over London</h2>

Another woman in the United Kingdom found it cheaper to travel to Milan for a day than to London. The woman said that she paid £50 ($64.29) for return flights to&nbsp;Milan, which was comparatively cheaper.&nbsp;

Dagmara Kedzierska said she chose to travel to Milan because rail tickets&nbsp;are expensive in the United Kingdom.

The 30-year-old said that a return train from the capital to her home in&nbsp;Manchester&nbsp;would have cost her more than £100 ($128.58).&nbsp;

The woman reached the Italian city at 10:50 am (local time) and started her day with freshly baked croissants and coffee.

Watch:&nbsp;UK: Shoplifting cases hit all-time high

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/uk-shoplifting-cases-hit-all-time-high-744120/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

"The&nbsp;day trips abroad&nbsp;are way more appealing, as most of the time they work out cheaper than staying in the UK. My Milan trip cost me less than £200, including the flights, transport, food and drinks," Dagmara said.&nbsp;

"I also love food and travelling abroad even for one day lets me try new foods. The restaurants in the UK are very basic and most of the time you will eat pre-cooked pasta or pre-baked pizza," he added.&nbsp;

(With inputs from agencies)

London seems to be turning too pricey for its citizens. In an unbelievable incident, a couple flew to Milan just to grab some tasty sandwiches, as they found that travelling to London for the same was comparatively costlier.

London seems to be turning too pricey for its citizens. In an unbelievable incident, a couple flew to Milan just to grab some tasty sandwiches, as they found that travelling to London for the same was comparatively costlier. 49-year-old Sharon Summer made the decision to travel with her partner Dan Puddifoot to another country just to buy some sandwiches. Earlier, the two had decided to go on a morning meal together. However, when they checked the roundtrip ticket from Cranfield, Bedfordshire, to London, it cost approximately £35 ($45) and £50 ($64.29) and the travel time was nearly an hour and a half. Also Read: UK government strikes pay deal with junior doctors to end NHS walkouts But the flight to Italy's Milan only cost £14 ($18). So, they opted for Milan, where they explored the city, ate sandwiches and flew back home at night. Another 'thrifty' woman opts for a day trip to Milan over London Another woman in the United Kingdom found it cheaper to travel to Milan for a day than to London. The woman said that she paid £50 ($64.29) for return flights to Milan, which was comparatively cheaper. Dagmara Kedzierska said she chose to travel to Milan because rail tickets are expensive in the United Kingdom. The 30-year-old said that a return train from the capital to her home in Manchester would have cost her more than £100 ($128.58). The woman reached the Italian city at 10:50 am (local time) and started her day with freshly baked croissants and coffee. Watch: UK: Shoplifting cases hit all-time high "The day trips abroad are way more appealing, as most of the time they work out cheaper than staying in the UK. My Milan trip cost me less than £200, including the flights, transport, food and drinks," Dagmara said. "I also love food and travelling abroad even for one day lets me try new foods. The restaurants in the UK are very basic and most of the time you will eat pre-cooked pasta or pre-baked pizza," he added. (With inputs from agencies)

UK couple claims flying to Milan, not London, for sandwiches is ‘cheaper’

Budget 2024 Cheaper Costlier Items List: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the interim Budget 2024 on Thursday (Feb 01). This budget will look after the country's financial needs until a new government comes into power after the Lok Sabha elections in 2024.

Budget 2024 Cheaper Costlier Items List: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the interim Budget 2024 on Thursday (Feb 01). This budget will look after the country's financial needs until a new government comes into power after the Lok Sabha elections in 2024. It was Nirmala Sitharaman's sixth budget. In her speech, she said, "People are living better and earning better, with even greater aspirations for the future. Average real income of the people has increased by fifty per cent. Inflation is moderate. People are getting empowered, equipped and enabled to pursue their aspirations." Ahead of the budget presentation, the general public was curious to know what items will become affordable and goods that will observe an increase in prices. Previously, there have been price changes in electronic gadgets, home appliances, vehicles and jewellery. However, it is noteworthy that there was no announcement regarding what got cheaper or what became more expensive in the Budget Speech 2024 by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. ALSO READ | India budget 2024: Budget is 'inclusive and innovative,' says PM Modi Let's take a look at what has become more expensive or cheaper over the past five years. Here's a year-by-year list: Union Budget 2023-2024: List of Cheaper and Costlier items Cheaper: TVs, smartphones, compressed gas, shrimp feed, lab-grown diamonds, machinery for manufacturing lithium-ion cells for EVs Costlier: Cigarettes, bicycles, imitation jewellery, air travel, electric chimney, copper scrap, textiles Union Budget 2022-2023 Cheaper: Imitation jewellery, computers, mobile phones, laptops, cut and polished diamonds, gems Costlier: Umbrellas, imported items, unblended fuel, chocolates, smartwatches and their earbuds Union Budget 2021-2022 Cheaper: Gold, silver, leather products, nylon clothes, products made of iron, steel and copper Costlier: Solar cells, mobile phones and chargers, imported gems and precious stones, imported AC and fridge compressors, imported auto parts Union Budget 2020-2021 Cheaper: Raw sugar, skimmed milk, soya fibre, soya protein, certain alcoholic beverages, agro-animal based products, import of newsprint, lightweight and coated paper, purified terephthalic acid Costlier: Medical equipment, footwear, furniture, wall fans, cigarettes and other tobacco products, clay iron, steel, copper, CV parts Union Budget 2019-2020 Cheaper: Affordable houses, set-top boxes, imported defence equipment, imported parts of EVs, camera modules, mobile phone chargers, imported raw material for making artificial kidneys, imported wool fibre, wool tops Costlier: Petrol, diesel, cash withdrawal over Rs 1 crore a year, fully-imported cars, split ACs, cigarettes, hookah and chewing tobacco products, imported auto parts, imported stainless steel products, imported gold and other precious metals, imported paper and paper products including printed books, imported plugs, sockets and switches, CCTV cameras and loudspeakers. (With inputs from agencies)

Budget 2024: What's become cheaper or costlier in last five years? Check year-wise list of items

Indian Union Budget 2023-24 LIVE: What's cheaper, What's costlier? Today, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Indian Union Budget 2023-24 in the Parliament on Wednesday, February 1.

Indian Union Budget 2023-24 LIVE: What's cheaper, What's costlier? Today, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Indian Union Budget 2023-24 in the Parliament on Wednesday, February 1. On January 31, the finance minister had presented the Economic Survey 2022-23 in Parliament. It was Nirmala Sitharaman's fifth Union Budget and the current government's last Union Budget before the Lok Sabha polls in 2024. In the second part of her 2023 Budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman mentioned the relief or increase of custom duties on some items. Mobile phone production in India saw a significant increase in the last financial year. Thus, the finance minister proposed a relief on customs duty on imports of certain parts of mobile phones, including camera lenses and lithium-ion cells. Similarly, television components will become cheaper, as per the Indian Union Budget 2023. Before we move towards the items that saw a price change in the Indian Union Budget 2023, let's take a look at today's highlights. Indian Union Budget 2023: Cheaper & Costlier Items Here's the full list of items that got cheaper or costlier in Budget 2023-24. Cheaper Costlier camera lenses of mobile phones, laptops & DSLRs platinum, gold, and silver articles lithium ion batteries electric chimneys open cells of TV panels cigarettes heat coils compounded rubber crude glycerin diamond seeds Highlights of Indian Union Budget 2023: Finance Minister has called the Indian Union Budget 2023, the first budget of the Golden era. The projected economic growth is 7%, the highest among the major economies. Moreover, the Union Budget 2023 has seven priorities including infrastructure and investment. In the Union Budget for the fiscal year 2023, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman covered topics like agriculture, employment, green growth, youth and the financial sector. During the presentation of the Union Budget 2023, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, "The Indian economy has increased in size. It became the 5th largest from the 10th largest economy in the last nine years." The finance minister urged the state governments to set up Unity Malls in their respective cultural hubs. For the upcoming fiscal year, the government has laid a capital outlay of ₹2.4 lakh crore for Indian Railways, the highest ever for the department. The fiscal deficit is 5.9 per cent of the GDP for 2023-24, said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Union Budget speech. Indian Union Budget 2023-24: What's costlier? People have awaited the Union Budget 2023 as it directly impacts their daily lives. As the essential and non-essential items get cheaper or costlier, they affect the pockets of the common man. The rates of the items go up or down depending on the duty increases or decreases. Gold, silver and platinum will become pricier. Compounded rubber will also become more expensive. Last but not the least is bad news for smokers. Cigarettes will become costlier, according to the Indian Union Budget 2023. Indian Union Budget 2023-24: What's cheaper? Electric kitchen chimneys will become costlier, and heat coils will become cheaper. Denatured ethyl alcohol will become cheaper to support ethanol blending and energy transitions. Moreover, the Indian Union Budget 2023 makes things easier for the domestic fluro-chemical industries. Marine products, particularly shrimps, recorded the highest export growth in the last financial years and benefitted the farmers. Thus, the inputs for the domestic manufacturing of shrimps will become cheaper. Diamond seeds used in the manufacturing of lab-grown diamonds will become cheaper to promote the diamond industry in India. During her Indian Union Budget 2023 speech, the finance minister said that lab-grown diamond industry holds 'great promise for the nation.' Raw materials used in manufacturing CRGO steel, ferrous scrap, copper scraps and nickel cathode will become cheaper for promoting the industries. Here's the full list of items that got cheaper & costlier in 2022: Costlier Cheaper Headphones and earphones Mobile phone chargers Umbrella Frozen mussels Imitation Jewellery Frozen squids Smart meters Asafoetida Solar cells Cocoa beans Solar modules Methyl Alcohol X-ray machines Cut and polished diamonds Parts of electronic toys Camera lens for cellular mobile phone

Indian Union Budget 2023-24 LIVE: What's become cheaper & What's costlier? Check full list here

The Indian makers of a $4 smartphone hope its low price will allow millions of the poorest to own a mobile phone in a market which at present has seen only 10 per cent penetration. 
 
But labour rights campaigners worry that the push to churn out cheap handsets and tablets may lead to greater abuse of workers&#39; rights in India, world&#39;s fastest-growing smartphone market. 
 
Ringing Bells&#39; Freedom 251 smartphone, whose launch in February crashed the company&#39;s website, is priced at Rs251. 
 
On Thursday, the company&#39;s chief executive Mohit Goel said the first shipment of about 200,000 handsets was due next week. 
 
Ringing Bells pays fair wages to its workers and its pricier models will help offset the cost of the $4 phone, he added. 
 
&quot;Our vision is to make mobile phones more affordable to the millions of poor Indians who do not own one,&quot; Goel told Reuters. 
 
India sold 103 million handsets last year, an increase of 29 per cent on the previous year.&nbsp; 
 
With only one in 10 Indians owning a mobile phone, there is enormous potential - much of it at the lower end of the market where dozens of local and foreign brands are vying for customers with some handsets selling for less than $25. 
 
However, the pressure to keep costs low is pushing manufacturers to pay low wages, rely on cheaper contract labour and insist on unpaid overtime, activists say. 
 
&quot;Responsibility of the supply chain and workers lies with brand companies,&quot; said Gopinath Parakuni, general secretary at Cividep, a workers&#39; rights campaign group. 
 
&quot;Our regulations simply aren&#39;t strong enough to ensure workers in the electronics industry are taken care of,&quot; he said. 
 
&#39;Who pays the price?&#39; 
 
Last month Cividep and Amsterdam-based GoodElectronics issued a report on Samsung Electronics, the leader in India&#39;s mobile market, which found that Samsung workers were poorly paid with no way to effectively have their grievances addressed. 
 
A Samsung India spokesman said the company complies by all relevant labour laws and regulations wherever it operates.&nbsp; 
 
&quot;Fairness and respect for all are the values that form the foundation of our business,&quot; the spokesman said in a statement. 
 
While most of the 100-odd phone companies in India largely import from China and Taiwan, companies are increasingly heeding Prime Minister Narendra Modi&#39;s call to &#39;Make in India&#39;, an initiative launched in 2014. 
 
Chinese phone maker Xiaomi rolled out its first, locally-made smartphones last year from a facility in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. 
 
The &#39;Make in India&#39; drive to boost manufacturing is aimed at luring more investment, raising economic growth and creating jobs in industries such as electronics and apparel. 
 
But these efforts lack sufficient checks and balances for millions of workers who face archaic labour laws, low wages, few benefits and little job security in businesses that often flout laws on safety or underage workers, activists say. 
 
In India&#39;s electronics industry, working conditions are &quot;among the worst&quot;, according to a 2013 report by Hong Kong-based labour rights non-profit Asia Monitor Resource Centre. 
 
Not all efforts to produce cheap electronics have been successful. In 2008, the Indian government unveiled a $10 laptop that ended up costing more than $100, while a $20 Android tablet sold through a subsidy scheme failed to capture significant market share. 
 
&quot;Companies like to say cheap phones and computers is about digital empowerment and democracy,&quot; said Raphel Jose at the Centre for Responsible Business in New Delhi. 
 
&quot;But we must stop and ask, &#39;what is the real cost of these cheap devices? Who pays the price?&#39; Cheap is not always good,&quot; he said. 
 
($1 = 67.55 Indian Rupees)&nbsp; 
 
(Reuters)

Activists claim that to keep costs low, manufacturers pay low wages, rely on cheaper contract labour and insist on unpaid overtime

The Indian makers of a $4 smartphone hope its low price will allow millions of the poorest to own a mobile phone in a market which at present has seen only 10 per cent penetration. But labour rights campaigners worry that the push to churn out cheap handsets and tablets may lead to greater abuse of workers' rights in India, world's fastest-growing smartphone market. Ringing Bells' Freedom 251 smartphone, whose launch in February crashed the company's website, is priced at Rs251. On Thursday, the company's chief executive Mohit Goel said the first shipment of about 200,000 handsets was due next week. Ringing Bells pays fair wages to its workers and its pricier models will help offset the cost of the $4 phone, he added. "Our vision is to make mobile phones more affordable to the millions of poor Indians who do not own one," Goel told Reuters. India sold 103 million handsets last year, an increase of 29 per cent on the previous year. With only one in 10 Indians owning a mobile phone, there is enormous potential - much of it at the lower end of the market where dozens of local and foreign brands are vying for customers with some handsets selling for less than $25. However, the pressure to keep costs low is pushing manufacturers to pay low wages, rely on cheaper contract labour and insist on unpaid overtime, activists say. "Responsibility of the supply chain and workers lies with brand companies," said Gopinath Parakuni, general secretary at Cividep, a workers' rights campaign group. "Our regulations simply aren't strong enough to ensure workers in the electronics industry are taken care of," he said. 'Who pays the price?' Last month Cividep and Amsterdam-based GoodElectronics issued a report on Samsung Electronics, the leader in India's mobile market, which found that Samsung workers were poorly paid with no way to effectively have their grievances addressed. A Samsung India spokesman said the company complies by all relevant labour laws and regulations wherever it operates. "Fairness and respect for all are the values that form the foundation of our business," the spokesman said in a statement. While most of the 100-odd phone companies in India largely import from China and Taiwan, companies are increasingly heeding Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call to 'Make in India', an initiative launched in 2014. Chinese phone maker Xiaomi rolled out its first, locally-made smartphones last year from a facility in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The 'Make in India' drive to boost manufacturing is aimed at luring more investment, raising economic growth and creating jobs in industries such as electronics and apparel. But these efforts lack sufficient checks and balances for millions of workers who face archaic labour laws, low wages, few benefits and little job security in businesses that often flout laws on safety or underage workers, activists say. In India's electronics industry, working conditions are "among the worst", according to a 2013 report by Hong Kong-based labour rights non-profit Asia Monitor Resource Centre. Not all efforts to produce cheap electronics have been successful. In 2008, the Indian government unveiled a $10 laptop that ended up costing more than $100, while a $20 Android tablet sold through a subsidy scheme failed to capture significant market share. "Companies like to say cheap phones and computers is about digital empowerment and democracy," said Raphel Jose at the Centre for Responsible Business in New Delhi. "But we must stop and ask, 'what is the real cost of these cheap devices? Who pays the price?' Cheap is not always good," he said. ($1 = 67.55 Indian Rupees) (Reuters)

India's $4 smartphone will further hurt underpaid workers' conditions, campaigners say

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