The Indian government is planning to charge a customs duty of minimum 10 percent on mobile smartphones that are imported under the Goods and Service Tax rule. The idea is to keep hold of benefits bestowed to domestic manufacturing in line with the ‘Make in India’ program and electronics manufacturing.
“The import tax will be minimum 10 percent, and this is being done to make sure that production in India remains profitable as compared to importing the gadgets from elsewhere,” an administrator source claimed according to Industry Daily News.
The decision may not result in any augmentation in prices of imported mobile phones, but will certainly lead to a more exhaustive and engaged manufacturing process within the country, the administrator added.
Two years back the government initiated the duty differential among local assembly manufacturing against imports in order to support their make in India initiative.
It presently charges a 12.5 percent countervailing duty on mobile chargers, batteries and headsets of smartphones and a similar rate of tax on completely-made smartphones imported into India. Last week the government delayed the plan to get e-commerce firms to amass taxes from merchants.
Earlier, the Ministry of Finance claimed that the move was made with the aim of making sure that a smooth introduction of Goods and Service Tax is conducted after considering the feedback received from industry and trade regarding the provisions.
