In a bid to protect domestic manufacturers and encourage domestic manufacture and assembling, Indian Government announced on Friday a hike in import duty on electronic items including smartphones. So, from now on imported smartphones will cost more as customs duty being increased to 15% from 10% as per the Finance Ministry’s notification.

The move will impact companies that were importing smartphones to sell in India. According to industry experts, smartphone makers like Apple and Lenovo will face the maximum impact of this decision as they are the most import-dependent.

Apple products such as iPhones will become more expensive in comparison to domestic and some China-based manufacturers which assemble a lot in the country, including Samsung. On the other hand, Apple imports nearly 88% of the phones it sells in India, so the company has no option but to increase the prices after the government’s decision.

Apple has updated the prices across the entire iPhones except for the iPhone SE as the device is being assembled in India already since June.

New Prices of Apple iPhone models

Apple has said that the prices will see an average hike of 3.5 percent across its iPhone range. For example, the iPhone X’s starting model, priced at Rs 89,000, will cost Rs 92,430 now. The new prices of some of the iPhone models can be seen in the table below.

Apple has updated the new prices while the other companies are yet to work out the exact price hike. You should also note that the prices mentioned are MRPs from the company. Notably, almost all iPhone models are available at lower prices via offline and online retail channels due to some cashback or other ongoing offers.

The Government’s notification has said customs duty has increased from 10 percent to 20 percent on electronic items including video recording equipment and television cameras. So, we can see the price hike in television sets, digital cameras, microwave ovens, LED bulbs and a number of other electronics goods as well apart from imported mobile phones.