Cheaper devices come? New incentive scheme aims to lower electronic prices | Mint

New -Delhi: An incentive for local manufacturing of a series of electronic components, from smartphone exhibitions to batteryzes to cameram modules, was notified by the central government on Tuesday, giving manufacturers a fullip to increase domestic capacity by means of green field or brown field investments. The Electronics Component Manufacturing Scheme (ECMS) will start accepting applications of stakeholders in the industry within the next three weeks, following a short consulting period on how the scheme will be made accessible to the industry, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Tuesday. The scheme of £ 22,919 or $ 2.7 billion from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity) offers incentives of up to 10% of turnover and up to 25% of capital expenditure to set up electronic components in the country. The incentives will apply to this fiscal self. Incentives offered close up to 4% on £ 250 crore investment over six years in display modules; 5% for the first year at £ 250 crore investment over six years in camera modules; up to 10% on £ 50 crore investment over six years in the manufacture of printed circuit board (PCB); up to 6% at £ 500 crore investment over six years in batteryzes for smartphones; Hybrid subsidies of 8% of turnover and 25% of capital expenditure in flexible PCBs; Up to 25% on £ 10 crore investment in component manufacturing equipment, and more. As part of the incentive expenses, Meity further seeks to generate more than 90,000 direct jobs in six years by applicants of the scheme. Up to 5% of the incentives will depend on the applicants who meet these work criteria. In general, there are 11 categories of components selected for the incentives. Applications will open on May 1 and remain open for all components for three months, and two years for the manufacture of equipment and machinery of components. As more components in India start, Vaishnaw said the scheme has the potential to make gadgets cheaper in the country. As part of the addition of domestic value, devices will start to generate increasing margins – the space for brands to pass on the cost advantage to customers. The effect of the scheme can match how Apple thanks to lower import taxes until US President Donald Trump’s trading rates were announced on April 2, managed to sell its iPhones at a lower price in the US compared to other geographical areas such as India. However, Vaishnaw said the goal is greater than that. “In India, the supplement to the highest domestic value is up to 20%today. Within the scope of the next five years, India should be able to reach double the value adding and to the highest level in global geographical areas,” the minister said. Vaishnaw also added that Mity does not look at the electronic localization scheme “as an import replacement opportunity. On the contrary, we only watch it from an export opportunity, which in turn will deliver a greater value for India’s electronic manufacturing firms”. “In FY25, the export of smartphones crossed £ 2 trillion, which made smartphones the best goods from India,” the minister added. “It is a 54%growth over FY24, of which the iPhone exports alone was worth £ 1.5 trillion. Over the past decade, electronic production has grown 5x – with a CAGR more than 17%. The export has risen more than 6x, with a CAgr of more than 20%.” To be sure, industry stakeholders struggled for the center to offer a framework to speed up the impact of localization of components. Mint reported on Monday that the center looked at various frameworks to speed up the engineering operations process to increase the manufacture of local components. Ankush Wadhera, partner and managing director at the consultant firm Boston Consulting Group (BCG) India, said the incentive layout would provide a much -needed boost for the addition of domestic value, in an industry that so far welcomed the electronic assembly and the ecosystem of the semiconductor. ” “The move will help players set up components manufacturing facilities in India in key areas such as high-end PCBs, thereby reducing our country’s dependence on imports, which will be the key to increasing India’s interest in the global electronic supply chain,” he said.