Budget 2018: Reactions from mobile phone industry

The increase in custom duty from 15 percent to 20 percent will definitely hamper the cost to customer, especially when it comes to getting repairs for the high-end devices.

By Priyanka
|

To further incentivize the domestic value addition and Make in India in some such sectors, the government had increased the customs duty on mobile phones from 15 percent to 20 percent.

 
Budget 2018: Reactions from mobile phone industry

In his Budget speech he said that "To further incentivize the domestic value addition and Make in India in some such sectors, I propose to increase customs duty on certain items. I propose to increase customs duty on mobile phones from 15 percent to 20 percent, on some of their parts and accessories to 15 percent and on certain parts of TVs to 15 percent. This measure will promote the creation of more jobs in the country."

 

Let's have a look at how some of the top smartphone makers responded to the new budget:

Coolpad India

Syed Tajuddin, CEO, Coolpad India said, "This budget is pretty regular with a mixed bag of things, nothing path-breaking or outstanding to boost the manufacturing sector. For agricultural and rural economy there is some really positive news, but not great hints for the Consumer durable and mobile handset industry. The increase in customs duty from 15 percent to 20 percent will definitely hamper the cost to the customer, especially when it comes to getting repairs for the high-end devices. While the increase in customs duty on handsets will compel brands to manufacture or assemble more in India, still there is not great support for local ecosystem for manufacturing spare parts. And this lack of local spare part manufacturers will mean a tough situation for mobile handset brands. Hence a brand is compelled to import most of the spare parts and customers have to bear some burden of it."

Motorola Mobility India

Sudhin Mathur, Managing Director, Motorola Mobility India said, "The current move will provide stimulus to the government's 'Make in India' initiative and further enhance the manufacturing sector leading to job creation."

Panasonic

Manish Sharma, President and CEO, Panasonic India & South-Asia; President, CEAMA said, "ACE industry welcomes the Budget, particularly the push for local manufacturing of Mobile Phones and Consumer Electronics by increasing Customs Duty on imported products and components, a move that is consistent with the government's Make-in-India initiative."

Micromax

Rajesh Aggarwal, Co-Founder Micromax, "The increase in customs duty on mobiles will encourage local manufacturing. As India is becoming the global hub for manufacturing, the measures taken by the government will surely grow confidence amongst the manufacturers and I strongly believe that this will further create business and human resource opportunities as well. Also, with the government's move to invest in over 5 lakh WIFI Hotspots, will enable rural India to have Broadband access which in turn will
be a significant stepping stone in the Digital India movement.

Smartron

Mahesh Lingareddy, Founder & Chairman of Smartron, "Union Budget 2018 has given clear indications of a continued focus on the growth of new businesses in India. The announcement of the increase in basic customs duty on mobile phones to 20 percent is a concrete step towards fostering local manufacturing in India which would further fuel indigenous innovation. This will allow us to build an innovation engine pipeline of several global brands in the country."

iVOOMi

Ashwin Bhandari, CEO iVOOMi India said, "It's a welcome initiative towards making in India, in last 2 years ecosystem in India has already taken first level growth and situation has improved a lot. All the required resources for making the phones in India are stable, hence this will fuel industry growth, boom localization to next level."

Comio

Sanjay Kumar Kalirona, CEO & Director, COMIO said, "The Union Budget-2018 is a positive step towards India's growing smartphone market. The increased customs duty on mobiles will further boost local manufacturing and will be the essential push to create a manufacturing eco-system as well as boost local manufacturing of components & accessories in India. Smartphones play a crucial role in today's times and this budget is an extension of the 'Digital India' initiative. With the focus on development, it is a progressive budget and is a stepping stone to India's growth story."

Detel

Yogesh Bhatia, MD, Detel said, "Certainly the budget is going to revive the confidence of the domestic Entrepreneurs. The increase in the customs duty on mobile phones and TVs was indeed a much-needed move. The rejig will make imported products expensive and would provide further impetus to the 'Make in India' initiative of the Government."

Intex Technologies

Rajeev Jain, Chief Financial Officer, Intex Technologies said, "I welcome government's move to walk the talk on "Make in India" by increasing customs duty (to 20 percent) on the imported mobile phones and in PCBAs of accessories like batteries & chargers (15 percent), which will prove to be the big boost for localisation and setting up of a domestic component ecosystem. This is a big thumb up to domestic players like Intex, which have been developing domestic capacities since long in electronics manufacturing.

LAVA

Sanjeev Agarwal, Chief Manufacturing Officer, LAVA International said, "We welcome the announcement on customs duty increase in mobile phones from 15 percent to 20 percent in the Union Budget 2018-19. This will provide a big boost to the Make-in-India campaign by the government and will be instrumental in achieving our country's vision of making India a global hub for mobile phone manufacturing. Local manufacturing will create more job opportunities, benefitting the youth and contributing towards the overall growth of the economy. I congratulate the government on this landmark decision."

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