Union Budget 2017: Prices of mobile phones likely to rise in India

Union Minister for Finance Arun Jaitley giving final touches to the Union Budget 2017-18, at North Block in New Delhi on Tuesday. Pic/ PTI

The Union Budget presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on February 1, 2017 has seemed to leave a significant impact on the prices of mobile phones in the country.

Prices of mobiles phones are expected to increase by at least 1% in the next fiscal year as the central government has proposed imposition of 2% Special Additional Duty on import of populated printed circuit boards (PCBs) that are used to manufacture mobile phones. This announcement was made as a part of the government's 'Make in India' initiative and to encourage manufacturing of PCBs in the home country. This move is also expected to benefit local PCB makers and at the same time bring a significant growth in the domestic industry.


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PCB is the main component of any mobile phone. Presently Samsung only builds up PCBs in India, while others seem to import the component from countries like China. Mobile brands round the world believe that imposition of customs duty is a move to bring investments in India and a slight increase in the cost of final product can be accepted.

Though no big announcements have come till now, yet the Indian government has announced multiple steps to encourage and improve domestic manufacturing, which in turn is expected to provide a better network for mobile manufacturers.