If you are planning to buy a smartphone in India starting today, get ready to pay a bit extra which could be a difference ranging from Rs 500/- to Rs 5,000/- depending upon which smartphone you are looking for. This goes in effect after the Goods and Services Tax Council of India announced a hike of 6% in its GST rates on mobile phones and a few other components that have forced people to rethink before they could buy any phone. To elaborate, the GST rate has been hiked up to 18% from the original 12% where the excess 6 percent is the reason for the increase in price tags.
Different smartphone manufacturers are acting differently such as while many will be passing down the increased price to the customers, some have decided to absorb it. According to a statement made by Realme, it can showcase its youth-centric Realme Narzo series which consists of Narzo 10 and Narzo 10A. The company stated that the increased GST rate would affect the pricing as it has decided to absorb it allowing customers to buy both of these phones (at least) on its original MOP.
According to Xiaomi which has been selling phones in India at an operating profit of less than 5%, however, with the huge jump in the GST rates, they will have to jack up the pricing of their phones including both Mi and Redmi series. The same goes for Oppo which has reportedly sent out the updated price list of its smartphones which gives a clear picture of the MOP on phone before and after the increased rate swung into action earlier today i.e. April 1st.
The Oppo A1K which was available at Rs 7,490/- will now have a price tag of Rs 7,990/- while the latest flagship Oppo Reno 3 Pro will get a price increase from Rs 29,990/- to Rs 31,990/- and so on. Apple too is in the league on increasing the price tag and this is the second time Apple is hiking its price tags after the last month’s hike due to increased import duty.
As per the latest price list, iPhone 7 32GB that was earlier available at Rs 29,900/- will be available at Rs 31,500/- (MRP) and the same hike between 5.12% to 5.33% is seen across the whole lineup. The iPhone 11 Pro 64GB that was earlier available at Rs 1,01,200 will now have an updated price tag of Rs 1,06,600/- and so on. You might get a different price tag for any said smartphone model in retail or online stores so that’s probably your chance to find out the best deal to buy a phone in India since other OEMs will follow the suit soon.
