“Concession on duty for local manufacturers is a fantastic move much awaited by the domestic electronic manufacturers all across the country,” said Aashish Kumbhat, Founder and Director, Inbase which provides smart mobile accessories. “This will give our domestic manufacturers power to compete directly with finished goods imported from China and other neighbouring countries.”
He added that the concession in duty will open many avenues to export finished electronic products to other countries at competitive pricing which will increase Indian exports manyfold in the space.
“Duty concessions to promote electronics manufacturing such as wearables, hearables, mobile phones parts including camera modules etc. is a significant step towards an Atmanirbhar Bharat and will help to promote electronics manufacturing,” Josh Foulger, Managing Director, Bharat FIH said in a statement.
“It is definitely a big enabler as far as the concessions are concerned for enabling local manufacturing,” Krishna Moorthy, Presidentand CEO, India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA) told ET. “Enabling component level manufacturing and components or bringing components and manufacturing electronic products and systems out of the country and increasing the value addition is definitely a move in the right direction.”
However, Moorthy said that one question that has been doing the rounds since the announcement came out was with regard to how many the proposed rates will be as only then the impact can be assessed.
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“Normally this does happen on Budget day and clarity will emerge when further notifications come up. But as a policy statement, this is a welcome step,” he said.
Pankaj Mohindroo, Chairman of the Indian Cellular & Electronics Association (ICEA) too lauded the Phased Manufacturing Programme (PMP).
“This (the PMP) has also rationalized the inverted duty structure, which was throttling the development of manufacturing
in the sector. The PMP should be immediately followed up with a robust PLI programme to make India a global powerhouse in this segment,” he said in a statement.
However, Mohindroo said that the evolution of the PMP and manufacturing readiness of the inputs needs to be constantly studied and that the duty structure should be calibrated accordingly.
Industry body ELCINA or Electronic Industries Association of India said that there is a larger promise in the Budget for the sector.
“The new PLI scheme in solar modules will be very helpful. Indirectly, it helps the electronic industry as well as there will be a great demand generated for the Electronic control panels for the Solar modules,” Sanjay Agarwal, President of ELCINA told ET.
Foulger also added that the announcement of auction of 5G spectrum will boost the demand for 5G smartphones and telecom equipment will enable more consumers to be included in the next level of the digital economy.
“The Government of India’s emphasis on improving connectivity and strengthening India’s logistics is a very positive step for increasing India’s competitiveness and sustained electronic manufacturing and exports out of India,” IESA said in a statement.
Marthesh Nagendra, Country Manager – India, ME & SAARC of Netgear said that the Make in India push provides an interesting opportunity for the company that manufactures networking hardware.
“We see potential to increase our production to meet the growing demands of WiFi in the country,” Nagendra said. “Besides the production capabilities, we will be able to provide better and more products that can be manufactured in India. We hope that the momentum that the budget has started continues and delivers on its promises.”
