The government on Wednesday announced increase in import duty of 19 items including air conditioners, fridges and washing machines, to contain the widening current account deficit.

The basic custom duty on air conditioners has been increased from 10 percent to 20 percent.

Discussing the impact of the government's move, Suneel Advani, chairman of Blue Star said the firm will be impacted but not significantly.

“Our import content is not much more than about 20 percent now and we have stock for the foreseeable period, through the end of this calendar year,” he said, adding that the impact may be severe in the next year.

“The good point to note here is that if these import restrictions do take hold and I think they will to some extent then rupee will strengthen which will improve our situation on imports in the future. So we are not very worried,” he added.