Friday, July 11, 2014

Post-Budget reaction by Maxx Mobile

Post-Budget quote from Chairman and Managing Director of Maxx Mobile Ajjay R Agarwal:

We do not expect the budget to impact the consumer prices of mobiles phones. The 3% education cess translates into an additional duty of just 0.18%, which will not impact the prices of imported phones significantly. However, we are still studying the details of the budget to determine the exact impact on the pricing. On the manufacturing front, the reduction in investment allowance limit from Rs. 100 crore to Rs. 25 Crore. will help in encouraging ancillary units. But, the budget does not have any specific measures to incentivize large scale domestic manufacturing of mobile phones, like increasing the duty differential between imported and indigenously manufactured mobile phones. While we do appreciate the intent and direction of the finance minister to encourage manufacturing, some more concrete steps could have been taken.