IT Ministry to meet mobile phone makers, seek Budget inputs

In earlier meetings, phone and allied component makers have in their submissions told the Ministry that the levy of 18% GST on mobile phones had “led to very high costs', and should be brought down to 12%.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology is likely to meet mobile phone and allied component makers again this week to discuss possible steps on rationalisation of levies such as Goods and Services Tax. The meeting will be held before the scheduled meeting of GST Group of Ministers meeting on November 27, sources said.

There are some concerns we are aware of. We had some meetings in the past and we understand what we need to do. We will have a couple of more meetings to figure out how to best rationalise these levies,” a senior ministry official said. In its meetings with the industry associations, the Ministry is also likely to ask them to prepare a report on their demands from the Budget, sources said.

In meetings over the last few weeks, mobile phone and allied component makers have in their submissions told the IT Ministry that the levy of 18 per cent GST on mobile phones had “led to very high costs”, and should be brought down to 12 per cent. They have also submitted that GST on allied component be reduced to 5 per cent.

Source - https://indianexpress.com/article/business/gst-rate-it-ministry-mobile-phone-budget-7639971/