“The extension of duty benefit on components will encourage local manufacturing and increase confidence of the industry for new manufacturing investment,” said Sunil Vachani, chairman of Dixon Technologies and president at industry body Consumer Electronics and Appliances Manufacturers Association.
The Budget also extended concession duty till March 2026 for all inputs used in the manufacturing of LED drivers for LED lights, and moulds, tools and dies used in manufacturing of electronic products and its components. Also, capital goods and machinery used in the electronics and semiconductor industry have received duty exemption or concession till March 2029.
“The domestic production capability for the electronics industry will further go up and so will local value addition. This underscores the need for continued investment in domestic production,” said Pradeep Bakshi, managing director at Voltas.
The Budget also brought down the duty on specific parts for use in manufacturing of connectors and oxygen free copper used in manufacturing of resistors from 5% to 7.5% to nil. This, the industry said, may not lead to much value addition since they are a small part of the total input cost for most electronic products. The import duty on printed circuit board assembly (PCBA) of specified telecom equipment has been increased from 10% to 15%.Vachani said India at present imports PCBA valued at almost $6-billion across sectors whereas there is enough local capacity present for domestic production. “This duty increase will only help in import substitution and deepen local manufacturing,” he said.The government has been pushing local production for electronics goods and now the focus is on production of components. The duty reduction and extension will go a long way in making the country self-sufficient.
