Govt to impose 10% duty on imported smartphones to boost Make in India

In a bid to give a boost to local manufacturing, the Indian government has decided to impose a customs duty of at least10% on imported mobile phones when goods and services tax (GST) rolls in from 1st July onwards.


As per government sources, the duty can be notified later this week after which concerns of local manufacturers would be relieved, after having been worried about losing their edge against imports.

"The import duty will be at least 10%, and this is being done to ensure that manufacturing in India remains lucrative vis-à-vis importing the devices from China, or elsewhere," an official source told ET.

While prices of imported smartphones might not increase, it would surely prompt leading mobile companies to set up manufacturing base India.

California-based Apple Inc has started local sourcing in partnership with Taiwanese manufacturer Wistron and assembles the iPhone SE at its Bangalore facility. However, it still imports a large chunk of its requirements from outside. Similarly, Chinese companies like Lenovo-Motorola and OnePlus also import a substantial part of their India requirements.