Govt to Apple: Create jobs and invest in India before demanding concessions

Before giving in to extra concession demands from Apple for setting up a manufacturing unit, the government has asked US tech behemoth to first create jobs and invest in the country.

Apple demands are different. If they create jobs for lakh of Indians and invest in the land, then we may consider something, said the Business Line report quoting a source at the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).

Earlier, Union Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu had said that the government is awaiting a good proposal from tech giant to set up a manufacturing unit in the country.

He had asked the iPhone maker to come back with a fresh approach to its demands for manufacturing in India. MeitY was mandated to assess the proposals that were earlier being looked into by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

Meanwhile, the source further added that the government has already expressed India’s stand and also explained that India is different from China.

Last year Apple’s Chief Executive Tim Cook’s visited India and met PM in this regard. He said Apple is very bullish about India.

Apple had 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.

Though, 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.

iPhone giant considers India as one of the most important markets globally. It reportedly has 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%.