Budget 2019 – Government Cuts Mobile Phone Prices

The Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented her maiden Union Budget today. And, this budget definitely brings little excitement among those who want to upgrade their smartphones. As the smartphone market in the country has witnessed a rapid growth, this budget sounds appealing and is sure to cut the cost of mobile phones.

Well, the price of mobile phones will go down as the government has reduced the customs duty of components used to make mobile phones. Moreover, the government focuses on the Make in India campaign and has raised taxes to support the homegrown players.

What Makes Mobile Phones Cheaper?

At the Union Budget 2019, it was announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman that the capital goods that are used for manufacturing mobile phones including camera module, charger/adapter, Lithium Ion cell, compact camera module and display module have been reduced, the overall cost of mobile phones will also reduce.

Second Large Telecom Market

Notably, India is the second largest telecommunications market in the world with over 1.15 billion wireless subscribers and 512 million internet users. The country's smartphone market grew rapidly at a rate of 14.5% in 2018. Previous estimations have predicted that the mobile subscriptions in India will reach 1.4 billion by the year 2021. This sector is expected to growth at a rate of 15% this year.

How About Previous Years?

Back in the Union Budget 2018, there was an increase in the customs duty on mobile phones taking the same to 20% from 15%. This increase was aimed at increasing the local production in India. In the previous year that is 2017, the government announced 10% of customs duty. Later, in December the same year, the same was increased to 15%.

This increase in the customs duty left an impact on the foreign companies such as Google and Apple that depend on imports. The low-cost smartphones are a major challenge for the domestic manufacturers as face a stiff challenge from the low-cost phones that are brought to the country by the Chinese brands. And, with the new change in the budget that focuses on boosting the market for the homegrown makers, we can expect some change.

Our Take On This Move

Given that there will be a reduction in the mobile phone pricing as per the Budget 2019, if you are looking to upgrade to a new smartphone, then you need to wait for a few more weeks or months for the same to be implemented.