Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday (July 23) presented the first budget of Modi 3.0 government. During her budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a significant reduction in customs duty on mobile phones, mobile PCBAs, and mobile chargers from the current 20 percent to 15 percent.
Sitharaman highlighted the growth of the Indian mobile industry, noting that domestic production has increased threefold and exports of mobile phones have increased 100-fold over the last six years.
She stated, "With a threefold increase in domestic production and almost 100-fold jump in exports of mobile phones over the last six years, the Indian mobile industry has matured. In the interest of consumers, I now propose to reduce the Basic Customs Duty (BCD) on mobile phones, mobile PCBA, and mobile charger to 15%."
In addition to this, Lithium, copper, and cobalt, vital for various high-tech industries, are proposed to be exempt from customs duties. Customs duties on 25 critical minerals will also be either eliminated or reduced, benefiting sectors heavily reliant on these resources.
“For critical minerals, I propose to fully exempt customs duty on 25 minerals and reduce duty on two of them. This will provide a major fillip to the processing and refining of these minerals and boost their availability for strategic sectors like renewable energy, nuclear power, defence and high-value electronics,” the Minister said.
Meanwhile, the Indian smartphone market saw a modest 1 percent growth in the April-June quarter (Q2), with a total of 36.4 million units shipped, according to a report released on Thursday. Xiaomi reclaimed the top position after six quarters, capturing an 18 percent market share with 6.7 million units shipped.
Vivo closely followed, also shipping 6.7 million units, driven by affordable 5G and mid-range models, as per market research firm Canalys. Samsung ranked third with 6.1 million units shipped. Realme and OPPO (excluding OnePlus) rounded out the top five with 4.3 million and 4.2 million units shipped, respectively.
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