Phones are set to get costlier thanks to 10% import duty on display, touch panels

Smartphones and feature phones, the ones being sold by Realme, Oppo, Samsung, Apple, Vivo and Xiaomi, are going to cost more soon as the government has imposed a 10% import duty on display and touch panels, according to a report by Times of India.

The report says that move has been guided by the Aatmanirbhar Bharat campaign in an effort to push manufacturing within the country and give it the momentum it needs to gather pace. The actual impact of the duty comes to about 11% due to an additional cess.

Thanks to the hike, the price can go up anywhere between 1.5% to 5%, the companies said and added that this move might hit demand ahead of the critical festive season, according to sources who spoke to TOI.

Display and touch panels are critical components used in manufacturing of mobile phone and accounts for 15 to 25% of the cost of the device depending on the quality of the device.

The report says that the government feels that ‘the time is right’ to impose this duty on display panels as this is one of the elements earmarked in the phased-manufacturing programme (PMP) for mobile phones, according to TOI sources.

This particular duty was supposed to be imposed from April last year but has been deferred twice as the government wanted to give component manufacturers time to set up base in the country. Currently, there are four companies that are making display panels in the country including TCL and Holitech.