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Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday said that the central government has reduced basic custom duty (BCD) on the import of certain mobile phone parts and inputs like camera lenses and continued the concessional duty on lithium-ion cells for batteries for another year during her Union Budget 2023-24 speech in Parliament.

The Finance Minister said that this move will further deepen the domestic value addition in the manufacturing of mobile phones. She also proposed to reduce the basic custom duty on parts of open cells of TV panels to 2.5 per cent to promote value addition in the manufacturing of televisions.

“The mobile phone production in India had increased from 5.8 crore units valued at about Rs 18,900 crore in 2014-15 to 31 crore units valued at over Rs 2,75,000 crore in the last financial year, as a result of various initiatives of the government, including the ‘Phased Manufacturing programme’,” Nirmala Sitharaman said in Parliament.

According to Prabhu Ram, Head-Industry Intelligence Group, CMR, the reduction in customs duty on import of certain component parts for mobile phones is a welcome move and will provide further impetus to deepen the domestic value addition, and in furthering the development of electronics components ecosystem in India.

“Reducing the basic customs duty on parts of open cells of TV panels to 2.5% will again further promote local value addition of TVs in India,” said Tarun Pathak, Associate Director, Counterpoint

He also said that Camera lenses front and back contribute to around 1 per cent of the total BoM of the phones. “Including relief on the custom duty of certain parts and inputs will reduce the overall price to 1-1.1 per cent for a mobile phone,” Pathak added.

A. Gururaj, MD, Optiemus Electronics Ltd, said: This year’s budget is a strong effort to consolidate the Indian economy in post-pandemic dynamics, raising the personal tax exemption limit will certainly boost consumption and the electronics industry will surely benefit from it. Continuing the import duty cuts on Camera Lens and batteries for mobile manufacturing is a welcome step and this will continue to fuel the remarkable growth India has witnessed in domestic manufacturing.”

During the Budget 2023 presentation, the Centre also announced to set up 100 labs in the top engineering institutions to develop 5G apps and services . “To realise new opportunities, business models and employment potential, the 5G labs will cover applications such as smart classrooms, precision farming, intelligent transport systems and healthcare applications,” said Finance Minister in her speech.

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