India’s smartphone exports are set to cross Rs 1.70 lakh crore in the current fiscal – up 31% from Rs 1.29 lakh crore in FY24. Nearly 70% of shipments are of iPhones. Products from Samsung and domestic contract manufacturer Padget Electronics (Dixon) and a small amount of merchandise exports make up the remaining 30%.
According to industry sources, smartphone exports reached Rs 1.10 lakh crore in the April-November period, up 45% from the export figure of Rs 76,221 crore in the same period in FY24. In November, monthly exports were Rs 20,000 crore, the highest ever.
Apple’s iPhone vendor Foxconn, based in Tamil Nadu, made the biggest contribution to smartphone exports. The less than four-year-old iPhone factory is also India’s largest in terms of employees across all sectors, with about 42,000 employees, of which over 72% are women. The second-largest contributor to the iPhone ecosystem is Tata Electronics, followed by Pegatron, which is said to be in final talks to be acquired by the Tata Group.
The success of the smartphone production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme has been secular across multiple policy objectives. Industry association ICEA recently provided a four-year (2021-2024) assessment, informing the government that against a total PLI disbursement of Rs 5,800 crore during this period, the smartphone industry earned revenues of about Rs 1.10 lakh crore due to incremental GST and duties on components. This has created over 300,000 direct and 600,000 indirect jobs – most of them for women.
The smartphone industry added exports worth Rs 2.87 lakh crore during this period. According to the India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA), domestic value addition is up to about 20%.
“The success of the sector is attributed to the deep partnership between the government and the industry. To remain highly competitive to increase exports, we have sought certain selective tariff rationalisation and tax reforms as part of the upcoming Union Budget,” ICEA chairman Pankaj Mohindroo said.
In FY24, India exported smartphones worth Rs 1.29 lakh crore and electronics worth Rs 2.41 lakh crore. iPhones accounted for two-thirds of smartphone exports and one-third of electronics exports.
Communications and IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had earlier told FE in an interview that the government is working on an export-led growth strategy for smartphones and electronics. For this, the Electronics and IT ministry will work closely with the finance ministry to make the movement of goods across borders very smooth. According to him, import duties, processes, automation and storage are the areas that need to be considered for this purpose. Vaishnav said, “Today India has become a part of the global value chain of mobile phones and electronics. We are now considering an export-led growth strategy instead of just import substitution and looking at our needs.” He said, “A great opportunity has come before us and we have reached a stage where we can increase our exports rapidly.”
