In the last fiscal, mobile phones worth Rs 90,000 crore were produced in India, even as imports of handsets were at $3.7 billion (around Rs 24,364 crore) during the period, the Parliament was informed on Saturday, PTI report said. The country has seen growth in the production of mobile handsets at a steady pace over the last few years. “During 2014-15, mobile handsets worth Rs 18,900 crore were produced in India, which increased to Rs 54,000 crore in 2015-16 and further to Rs 90,000 crore in 2016-17,” Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha.
As per the agency report, the production of handsets in the country saw increase of 185 percent in value terms in 2015-16 in comparison to 2014-15 and 67 percent in 2016-17 as against 2015-16, the minister added in his reply. Sinha further said that during the same time-frame, import of mobiles fall from from 210 million devices (worth about $7,948 million) in 2014-15 to 146 million units ($6,059 million) in 2015-16. The minister further said that all major domestic and foreign brands have eaither set up their manufacturing units already or are in the process of doing so. A number of firms have also sub-contracted manufacturing to Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) companies, which are operating in the country, agency report added.
These factories are situated in Delhi, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.ThE government introduced differential excise duty on mobile sets in 2015-16 general budget in order to promote indigenous manufacturing in the country, Sinha said, as per PTI said.
“The Government of India has notified the Phased Manufacturing Programme (PMP) to promote indigenous manufacturing of cellular mobile handsets and its sub- assemblies… Basic Customs Duty (BCD) of 10 per cent has been imposed on cellular mobile handsets and identified parts thereof,” he added.
