Indian Government has reportedly agreed to provide partial tax concessions to Apple Inc. for manufacturing of iPhone SE in Bengaluru.
According to Wall Street Journal, The well-known Silicon valley organisation Apple has successfully accomplished the trial run of assembling iPhone SE at Wistron's assembly unit in Bengaluru. The company has already started the first batch production of iPhone SE handsets and the phone will be available at the stores later this month. Ravi Shankar Prasad, the union minister for Electronics and IT, has said that Apple also wants to grow its contract manufacturer's facility in Peenya.
For assembling iPhones in India initially, the Cupertino-based iPhone maker has demanded 15-year tax exemptions on the import of components are required to set up the manufacturing plant in India. At that time, the government has rejected the demand of the company and offered a phased programme to enhance the company’s share in the local market. The new tax concession will be subject to the condition of increasing local value addition over a period of time.
Aruna Sundararajan, Secretary at the Ministry of Electronics and IT told Reuters, “ We have offered them tax exemptions on those components which could not be manufactured in India.” She further added that local manufacturing of components would have to be increased gradually.
To fulfill the vision of Digital India and Make in India, Indian officials or experts have been in touch with Apple and other smartphone manufacturers are trying to grow existing facilities or come up with new or better plans. Chinese smartphone manufacturer companies Xiaomi, Vivo and Gionee begins local manufacturing whereas Korean smartphone manufacturer Samsung has already its own manufacturing set up in India.
Apple will be planning to set up his own retail stores in India as well as online stores in India by the end of this year. The Cupertino-based smartphone manufacturer is currently enjoying a share of 3 percent in India world’s largest smartphone market. The Manufacturing iPhone SE in India may benefit the company in expanding its revenue.
