In a bid to boost local manufacturing, the government is planning to offer more incentives to mobile part makers. The efforts aimed at making India a full-blown mobile components and accessories production hub in the next three to four years.
According to the Economic Times report, the government, as a part of phased plan, is likely to change duty structures around mobile phone components such as camera module, printed-circuit board (PCB) and keyboards to expand the manufacturing base locally by next year.
“There is a provision to manufacture a few accessories in the Union Budget 2016-17. In the next three to four years’ time, India will have a full-scale components manufacturing operational,” Department of Electronics and IT additional secretary Ajay Kumar told ET.
Currently, more than 90 percent of the mobile components are imported in India and the segment relies heavily on shipments from China and Taiwan for handsets manufactured locally. Kumar added that the government is trying to facilitate component-level manufacturing in a phased manner and the initiative could have a multiplier effect in creating new opportunities including employment within the country.
Industry stakeholders say that mobile parts manufacturing is critical for a comprehensive Make in India initiative as local manufacturers principally assemble mobile devices in India by importing necessary components.
“A fine balance has to be created in the phased manufacturing program (PMP) to enable the final product assembly industry to fully blossom, so that it can attract the components industry vigorously,” Pankaj Mohindroo, president of Indian Cellular Association, told ET. Mohindroo also sought the rationalization of the current duty regime to encourage local manufacturing of feature, or basic, phones.