Indian government is awaiting a good proposal from tech giant Apple to set up a manufacturing unit in the country, said Union Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu.
The Minister said India as part of Make in India programme is eager to manufacture more of products and partner with US tech giant.
“We are waiting for a good proposal from Apple. Please give us a concrete proposal. If the proposal comes, we will examine it. We are always open for that,” Prabhu told reporters after a third meeting of the Council for Trade Development and Promotion. “India is users of Apple, India should be manufacturers of Apple. We should be a partner of Apple. We are looking forward to hear from them,” he added.
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Last year Apple’s Chief Executive Tim Cook’s visited India and met PM in this regard.
“I’m very, very bullish and very, very optimistic about India. So we’re bringing all of our energies to bear there,” Cook had later said in August in 2017 in reply to a question on how he saw the India market while taking questions at Apple’s third-quarter earnings. However, Govt didn’t accept the early proposal of the company.
Apple has requested concessions, including duty exemption on manufacturing and repair units, components, capital equipment and consumables for a period of 15 years. It also wants relaxation in the statutory 30 percent local sourcing of components.
Instead, Indian government raised the customs duty from 10 percent to 15 percent for electronics and mobile products. Following this iPhone maker has to raise prices across iPhone models in the country.
Entrackr’s queries to Apple did not elicit any response till the publication of this report.
iPhone giant considers India as one of the most important markets globally. Its reportedly touched $2 billion sales in India.
According to the Registrar of Companies (Roc) filing, Apple India posted sales of Rs 11,619 crore ($1.8 billion) for the year ended March 2017, up from Rs 9,937 crore in the year-ago period (translating to 17% growth in a country)
In the last year ended March 2016, the firm had reported a growth of 53%.
Meanwhile, Apple’s local assembler in India, Wistron is also planning move beyond iPhone to set-up another smartphone manufacturing unit in Bengaluru.
