Apple iPhone prices increased in India after hike in customs duty

Now the tax hike could also force Apple to assemble more models in India.

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Just last week, the Department of Revenue under the Finance Ministry issued a notification stating a hike in import tax on mobile phones, and other products. At the time we had said that it would affect Apple's business greatly. Well, that is just what has happened. The Cupertino based company has now increased its prices across the entire iPhone range.

 
Apple iPhone prices increased in India after hike in customs duty

While this is a bad news for Apple fans and consumers, the government had announced that it is increasing mobile imports tax by 15 percent from 10 percent. The decision to increase the tax was taken after the industry witnessed a spurt in imports especially feature phones. This was also done to further help curb excess imports from overseas and instead grow the domestic industry.

 

Having said that, Apple has now increased iPhone prices in India and has said that the change is effective starting December 18. The company has changed the price of the iPhones on its official website page as well.
As such Apple has increased the price by 3.5 percentage on average while iPhone 6 has received the highest price hike of 4.3 percent in price, while the 256GB iPhone 8 has got an increase of 3.1 percent.

Apple iPhone X now starts at Rs. 92,430 instead of Rs. 89,000 and the 256 GB variant os dearer by Rs. 3,000-3,500 which makes the total to Rs. 1,05,720. The iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus will now be available at an MRP of Rs. 66,120 and Rs. 75,450 respectively from their original price of Rs. 64,000 and Rs. 73,000. As for the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus it will be available at Rs. 50,810 and Rs. 61,060 respectively. iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus are starting at Rs. 41,550 and Rs. 50,740 respectively. And finally, the iPhone 6 is now priced at an MRP of Rs. 30,780 from its earlier price of Rs. 29,500.

Apple iPhone prices increased in India after hike in customs duty

However, the only iPhone model that has not received the price hike is the iPhone SE. The smartphone is being assembled in India by Wistron since May this year, and thus is exempt from import tax.

The increase in import tax is applicable to all brands but Apple is the most affected brand as it imports about 88 percent phones it sells in India. With this price hike, India could likely be the seller of highest priced iPhone among several other countries in the world. Meanwhile, this tax hike could also force Apple to assemble more models in India.

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