ELECTRONICS
Mobile phones manufacturing surges 8-folds in last 5 years; electronics goods production doubles

mobile manufacturing, domestic electronics goods production, rbi annual report, rbi, mobile imports, excise duty

Mobile phones manufacturing has emerged as a flagship sector under the ‘Make in India’ and ‘Digital India’ initiatives. (Bloomberg image)

Production of mobile phone in India has shot up 8-folds in the last five years. India produced mobiles phones worth $ 24.3 billion in 2018-19, which was just $ 3.1 billion in 2014-15, according to the latest RBI annual report. Mobile phones manufacturing has emerged as a flagship sector under the ‘Make in India’ and ‘Digital India’ initiatives. The Narendra Modi led government has rolled out several measures to improve the competitiveness of the Indian electronics manufacturers through tariff structure rationalisation, infrastructure upgradation, procedure simplification and provision of incentives, which has helped the mobile manufacturing brands to set up their businesses in India. Meanwhile, the exports of mobile phones have also increased 8 folds on-year in FY19 making the UAE, Russia, South Africa and China as important export destinations.

The Union Budget 2015-16 introduced the Phased Manufacturing Programme (PMP) for mobile handsets and its related sub-assemblies. This involved countervailing duty on mobile phone imports, differential excise duty for domestic mobile phone manufacturing, and exemption of parts, components and accessories of mobile phones from basic customs duty to encourage domestic manufacturing of mobile phones. In addition, the Electronic Development Fund was also created in February 2016 to provide risk capital to firms developing new technologies in the sphere of electronics and information technology.

India has also matched the global place in overall electronics goods production by doubling it to $ 65.5 billion in FY19 from $ 31.2 billion in FY15. The electronics industry is among the largest and fastest-growing manufacturing industries globally, with production estimated at $ 2.9 trillion in 2018, according to RBI.  Prime Minister Narendra Modi, along with South Korean President Moon Jae-in inaugurated the 35-acre Samsung factory in Noida last year, which is the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturing facility. The facility not only aimed to almost double Samsung’s mobile phone production but also to double Samsung’s production capacity of consumer electronics like refrigerators and flat-panel televisions.

[“source=financialexpress”]

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