On 13 October 2011, vide Notification No. 97/2011 - Customs, the Government of India has reduced the effective tax rate on both wet dates and hard dates to 20%, as opposed to the earlier 30%.
Fresh dates are not included under this exemption.
The effective tax rate is the duty payable after exemptions. Wet and hard dates have received exemption from duty liability in excess of 20% vide amendment to the General Duty Exemptions (GDE) contained in Notification No. 21/2002 - Customs (notification dated 1 March 2002).