Apple’s “Make In India” Demands Under Consideration

Apple, the iPhone maker, has asked for specific allowances for installing up manufacturing plants in India and the government is taking them into consideration, said Ramesh Abhishek, the DIPP Secretary, this week to the media in an interview.

There are by now 90 phone firms producing smartphones in the nation, he claimed. When asked about proposals of Apple, Abhishek claimed to the reporters, “They are requesting for certain exceptions. The government is taking them into consideration. But there are 90 producers who are already producing here. So the ‘Make in India’ initiative is going quite sturdy.”

In March, Nirmala Sitharaman, the then Industry and Commerce Minister, had told the Rajya Sabha that the government has not approved of the needs of Apple that needs to install manufacturing plant in the country. Apple India has asked for allowances, including exemption of duty on repair and manufacturing components, units, consumables for smartphone manufacturing, capital equipment, and repair/service for a time frame of 15 Years, she had claimed in a written response.

In an interaction with the government, the Cupertino-located tech giant has requested for inducements from the Department of Information Technology and Electronics as well as Department of Revenue. Apple also needs relaxation in the mandatory 30% domestic sourcing of elements. It also needs decrease in customs taxes on semi-knocked-down and fully-knocked-down units of smartphones that are to be accumulated in the nation.

In addition to this, when asked regarding Tesla, the US-located electric car major, he claimed that the firm has not applied for progressive technology allowances and they have to stick to sourcing rules of the nation. According to present FDI policy, a foreign firm that needs to install sole brand retail shop might have to compulsorily source 30% of goods from the country.

On the projected industrial rule, Abhishek claimed that the ministry is having discussions with the shareholders. The ministry had made a task force guided by IIT Madras’ V Kamakoti to discover possibilities to use AI (artificial intelligence) for growth all over different fields. This panel is probable to take a short time to present its report, Abhishek claimed.