Mobile GST hike gives the government more than PLI outlay: Industry Executives

The incremental GST of 6% on mobile phones has raked in 342,897 crores over the last three financial years, topping the nearly 239,000-crore outlay of the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for

manufacturing of smartphones and making the government scheme self-sustaining, according to industry executives. In fact, the five-year smartphone PLI scheme will leave a revenue surplus of 11,000 crores if only the Centre’s GST (goods and services tax) collections are taken into consideration, industry body India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA) said in a June 5 letter to the finance

ministry. The government increased the GST on mobile phones to 18% from 129% on April 1, 2020, the day the smartphone PLI scheme was announced.

Okay, I will allow Maybe Lat As per India ICEA, over the last three financial years – FY21 to FY23-the incremental GST of 6% has resulted in an additional cumulative revenue of 142,897 crore. The total GST on mobile phones for the three-year period stood at 1,28,691 crore.

The final adjusted total outlay for the smartphone PLI scheme for a five-year period now stands at 38,601 crores as against the original *41,000 crores, as iPhone-maker Pegatron started a year late. So far, the total disbursement for smartphone PLI stands at ₹1,644 crore.

“Currently, since only ₹1,644 crores has been claimed as part of the PLI scheme till March 31, 2023, the incremental GST has created a surplus of *41,253 crores,” the ICEA said in the letter addressed to revenue secretary Sanjay Malhotra.

Calculating that, the incremental GST over the course of the smartphone PLI scheme would be around 1,01,697 crore, the ICEA said. Of this, the central government will collect 250,849 crores while retaining only its 50% portion, far more than the total outlay of the scheme.”In summary, even if only the Centre’s GST was to be taken into consideration, the smartphone PLI scheme over the five-year period is 100% self-sustaining and will leave a revenue surplus of 11,000 crores,” the industry body said.

The total GST contribution during the tenure of the smartphone PLI scheme is expected to tune of over 23 lakh crore. The scheme was deferred by one year for the majority of the companies due to the pandemic and will now end in 2025-26. All the selected companies, barring Samsung, have taken the deferment.

As per data shared with the government, since the scheme came into effect, over 120,000 new direct jobs have been created in the electronics sector, particularly in the smartphone manufacturing ecosystem.

On average, over 60% of these new jobs are now occupied by women in the age group of 19-24, most of whom are first-time job seekers. By conservative estimates, at least 250,000 new indirect jobs may have been created to support the fast-growing electronics manufacturing ecosystem.

Mobile phone exports have been gradually increasing due to PLI. In FY23, smartphone exports rose 50% to a high of $11.5 billion.