India’s Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the 2019 budget of the newly elected government. A large number of items including marble slabs will become more expensive due to hike in taxes, as proposed in an attempt to boost growth and provide domestic industry a level playing field.
India is among the big players of the global natural stone industry, both for import and export activity. New taxes on importing marble slabs will raise their price and it is possible to affect its consumption, as their value of imports was over $207 million in 2018.
Stonenews.eu, after studying the statistical results* of India’s National Statistical Institute, is presenting India’s imports of natural stone products (value and quantity of exports) in 2018 based on the main HS Codes they belong to as well as their changes between 2017 and 2018.
As presented at the tables above, in 2018, the highest value of imports was achieved on raw marble blocks and slabs under HS Code 251512, which holds the first place in the race of the largest amount of imported products as well.
In 2018, compared to 2017, the greatest decrease on value of India’s natural stone imports was recorded on HS Code 251511 by -99.92%, followed by HS Code 680229 which fell by -51.06%. HS Code 251511 had also the greatest decrease in quantity of imports by -99.94%, with HS Code 680229 at the second place with a decline of -63.70%.
The highest growth in import value was recorded on HS Code 680210, by the massive 1385.29%!! HS Code 680292 comes second increased by 592.28% and HS Code 680293 third presenting a 175.52% growth from 2017. The highest growth in quantity of imports was recorded on HS Code 680292 by the impressive 9700.00%!!! HS Code 680210 follows increased by 633.93% and HS Code 251520 comes next risen up by 472.11%.
India’s main supplier of raw marble in terms of import value shares in 2018 is Turkey (44.4%).
India’s main suppliers of raw granite according to import value share in 2018 are Norway (46.6%) and Brazil (16.7%).
India’s key suppliers under HS Code 680221 according to the share of import value of 2018 are China (29.6%), Italy (19.7%), Oman (16.4%), Sri Lanka (11.4% %) and Vietnam (7.9%).
*Due to consistent data flow, statistics may alter during the year
