Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, presenting her ninth Union Budget on February 1, 2026, announced a special one-time measure for manufacturing units in Special Economic Zones (SEZs). To help these units sell to the domestic tariff area (DTA), eligible SEZ manufacturers will get concessional duty rates. This comes due to industry concerns over high tariffs disrupting global trade and affecting capacity use in SEZ units. Ms. Sitharaman said, "To address the concerns arising about utilisation of capacities by manufacturing units in the SEZs due to global trade disruptions, I propose, as a special one-time measure, to facilitate sales by eligible manufacturing units in SEZs to the DTA at concessional rates of duty." The volume of these sales will be limited to a certain portion of their exports. The government will make the required regulatory changes to put this plan into action while keeping fair competition with units in the domestic tariff area. Currently, SEZ units can sell products domestically only after paying duties on finished goods. SEZs are treated as foreign territories for trade, allowing duty-free import of materials only when goods are meant for export. SEZs contributed $176.6 billion to India's exports in 2024-25. This fresh budget move is welcomed by industries, as it lets SEZ manufacturers sell more in India at lower duty costs by paying duty only on the inputs used, boosting value addition and capacity utilization.