Smartphones in India will get more expensive as tax will rise from 12% to 18%

The price of smartphones in India is set to rise as the GST Council has decided to raise the Goods and Services Tax (GST) from 12% to 18% on April 1. According to the government, this is to correct the inverted duty structure - currently finished phones are taxed at 12%, but components to built phones are taxed at 18%. The president of the Telecom Equipment Manufacturers Association of India stated that a better way to correct the inversion would have been to drop the component tax rate to 12%. Manu Kumar Jain, the managing director of Xiaomi India, states that the GST increase will...