Quieter, pointed reforms for ports, customs tariffs with big trade payoffs in Budget 2027

World Bank report in September on container port performance. "The port’s CPPI values were 66 (2020), 62 (2021), 35 (2022), 48 (2023), and 100 (2024).

This upward trend reflects the addition of terminal capacity and process reforms that have reduced turnaround and dwell times,” noted the report, put together with S&P Global Market Intelligence.CPPI, short for container port performance index, measures time performance compared to the global average with zero set at the average. The Navi Mumbai port was ranked 10th among global ports by pace of improvement in performance between 2020 and 2024.The government is also exploring the possibility of reducing the number of core tariff rates further down from eight now, to the extent possible, after two rounds of reduction in the February 2023 and February 2025 budgets meant to phase out 14 tariff rates.India now has eight core tariff rates: zero, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 30%, 50% and 70%, barring outliers such as wine and alcohol that are levied higher duties.

Free trade deals offer concessions on these rates.Calibration of customs duty rates on specified goods are also being examined to align the rates with India’s industrial goals of keeping imported raw material and machinery costs low and for providing sufficient tariff protection for domestic production of intermediate-to-final goods as the country seeks to achieve backward integration in manufacturing.However, trade strategy will play a key role in the customs reform drive. One of the options on the table is to further lower the number of tariffs rates to converge with developed country practices of having a limited number of rates or rate bands, but that will be worked out in conjunction with India’s trade diversification