Government to impose 10% import duty on imported mobile phones

The government is planning to impose 10 per cent customs duty on imported mobile phones so that indigenous manufacturing can be promoted.

This new duty is expected to be rolled out on July 1, when GST comes into force in the country. The government aims to promote ‘Make in India’ through this new tax.

“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 said.

Many big smartphone giants like Apple and Lenovo-Motorola and OnePlus have started local manufacturing although a large part of their phones components are still imported.

Apple has started production of iPhone SE in Bengaluru last month and this was conveyed by Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, to Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to United States recently.

The company has also set up a large app-accelerator which is training  iOS developers.

Cook is also learnt to have told Modi that more than  740,000 app economy jobs are being generated due to iOS in India. He also informed the PM that Indian app developers have created almost 100,000 apps for Apple’s App Store, with a growth of  57% since last year.

He is also believed to have told Modi that Apple plans to run its entire business on renewable energy by next year.

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