New Delhi: In order to boost the “Make-in-India” initiative, the Centre on Friday hiked import duties on smartphones, television sets, microwave and LED lamps among other electronic items. The duty on imported smartphones, which has been hiked to 15 per cent, will act as a blow to Apple’s ambition as they are currently in negotiation over duty relief. However, Samsung is unlikely to be affected as it assembles most of its handsets in the country.
“Indian industry does not want protection in the long term it is only to mitigate the short-term disruption,” said Indian Cellular Association, president Pankaj Mohindroo. He that in last 5-6 months import of feature phones had short up, which among others may also be due to dumping. While TV sets and microwave ovens saw their customs duty double to 20 per cent, video recording equipment as well as TV cameras recorded a 5 per cent jump to 15 per cent.
Import duty on set top boxes too been doubled to 20 per cent. Also, customs duty on lamps and lighting fittings including searchlights and chandeliers has been doubled to 20 per cent while the same on electricity meters has been increased from 10 per cent to 15 per cent. Consumer Electronics and Appliances Manufacturers Association (CEAMA) president and Panasonic India CEO Manish Sharma said that the association had been pushing the government to increase the basic customs duty for completely built unit imported into the country which in turn will benefit the overall domestic industry.
“Further to this significant development, local manufacturing will grow, giving the much-needed impetus to the Make-in-India vision. This shall not lead to major price hike as the duty structure for local manufacturing remains unchanged, but will boost indigenous manufacturing & generate more employment opportunities,” he said.
Leather, Footwear sector get a boost in hope of jobs:
The government on Friday approved a Rs 2,600 crore special package for employment generation in the leather and footwear sectors, which has the potential to generate 3.24 lakh new jobs in three years and assist in the formalisation of two lakh jobs. The decision was taken at a meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The package involves implementation of a central scheme ‘Indian Footwear, Leather & Accessories Development Programme’ with an approved expenditure of Rs 2,600 crore over the three fiscals to FY20. “The scheme would lead to development of infrastructure for the leather sector, address environment concerns specific to the leather sector, facilitate additional investments, employment generation and increase in production.
“Enhanced Tax incentive would attract large scale investments in the sector and reform in labour law in view of seasonal nature of the sector will support economies of scale,” a statement said. The package has the potential to generate 3.24 lakh new jobs in three years and assist in formalisation of two lakh jobs as cumulative impact in footwear, leather and accessories sector, the statement added.
It also includes measures for simplification of labour laws and incentives for job generation. Moreover, the provisions of minimum 240 days employment in a year to a workman under Section 80JJAA would be further relaxed to 150 days for footwear, leather and accessories sector considering the seasonal nature of this industry.
