Budget: Apple’s iPhone Pro, Google Pixel may get cheaper on customs duty reduction

NEW DELHI: With nearly 99% of mobile phones being made in India,

finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman

decided to slash the

import duty

on imported devices by 5%, a move that may have a marginal impact on prices of high-end products such as Apple’s

iPhone Pro

and Google’s Pixel.
“With a three-fold increase in domestic production and almost 100-fold jump in exports of mobile phones over the last six years, the Indian

mobile phone industry

has matured.

In the interest of consumers, I now propose to reduce the BCD (basic customs duty) on mobile phone, mobile PCBA (printed circuit board assembly) and mobile charger to 15%,” the finance minister said in the Budget speech. The duty was 20% previously and was originally introduced to support the local manufacturing of smartphones.
If the companies decide to pass on the benefits, the impact on the imported iPhone Pro models could be between Rs 3,000 and Rs 4,000, while on the

Google Pixel

between Rs 2,000 and Rs 3,000, Neil Shah, VP at CounterPoint said.
Shah said that Apple may gain $30-50 million in import savings due to the measure.

While Apple makes the bulk of its iPhone devices in India, taking benefits of the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme, the company still imports its Pro versions.
Google’s Pixel, which the company now wants to manufacture in India, is still being imported, even though its market share remains abysmal.
Dixon chairman Sunil Vachani, who is also the president of Consumer Electronics and Appliances Manufacturers Association, said the reduction in import duty will not have any impact on the local manufacturing of mobile phones. “The whole ecosystem is so strongly built in the country that we don’t see any threat from import of finished mobile phones. Also, there are the continuing benefits of PLI in India. We feel these factors should not result in a flood in import of smartphones,” Vachani said.