Photo Credit: Indiatimes

Mumbai: Retaining prominence of local manufacturing and Make in India, the government is set to impose a customs duty of at least 10 per cent on imported mobile phones under the GST regime.

Addressing concerns of local manufacturers who are worried about losing out to foreign players, government sources said the duty can be notified later this week.

This is done to ensure that Make in India stays lucrative compared to importing devices from China or anywhere else, an official told The Economic Times.

While this does not necessarily mean that imported phones will cost more, it is done to nudge those sitting on the fence to set up manufacturing within India, the official added.

Apple last week announced that a batch of its iPhones SEs assembled in its Bengaluru plant were up for sale in the city. However, several of the iPhone components are manufactured overseas.

Even the Chinese-owned OnePlus, and Lenovo-Motorola are sourcing a significant chunk of their India requirements through the import route.

The government currently imposes a 12.5 per cent countervailing duty on fully-made phones imported into the country and a similar duty on chargers, batteries and headsets of mobile phones.

Read: GST: Phone bills, insurance premia set to get costlier

On the other hand, the government postponed implementation of TDS and TCS provisions as well as exempt from registration small businesses from selling on e-commerce platforms.

E-commerce companies will not be required to collect 1 per cent TCS (Tax Collection at Source) while making payment to suppliers under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) which will be rolled out from July 1.

As per the Central GST (CGST) Act, the notified entities are required to collect TDS (Tax Deducted at Source) at 1 per cent on payments to suppliers to goods or services in excess of Rs 2.5 lakh. This provision has been kept in abeyance.