The Indian government has reportedly offered tax concessions to Apple on importing components that are required for local manufacturing. Apple is also reported to have agreed to increase the local share in production over a period of time.
Reuters quotes Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister for Electronics and IT, as a saying that Apple wants to expand one of its contract manufacturer’s facility in the Indian tech hub of Bengaluru. Apple was earlier reported to have finished the trial assembly of the iPhone SE and the company was said to begin shipping of ‘the Indian-made devices to domestic customers this month’. For those who are not aware, Wistron Apple’s original design manufacturer who will operate Apple’s first facility set up in Peenya, West Bengaluru.
“We have offered them tax exemptions on those components which could not be manufactured in India,” Aruna Sundararajan, Secretary at the Ministry of Electronics and IT said to Reuters. Apple has earlier asked for various concessions including a 15-year custom holiday on iPhone kits imports and other tax incentives to enter the manufacturing sector in India. However, a panel of ministries rejected the demand stating that will not be feasible and fair to other handset manufacturers in India which have been following the norm without any extra privileges.
It is expected that, Apple manufacturing iPhones in India will surely result in price revision even without any special tax exemptions. The current customs duty imposed on smartphones is about 12.5 percent which, if removed, will dip the price by Rs 10,000. Also, we can expect Apple to start selling Make-in-India iPhones sometime by end of this year.