Govt licenses TV imports to support local production

Why India could not become self-reliant in manufacturing such items ?

New Delhi – In a move aimed at promoting domestic manufacturing, the Government on 30th July decided to license the import of fully-built televisions sets by putting them on the “restricted” list.

Government amends the import policy of colour television sets from ‘free’ to ‘restricted’. The procedure for grant of license will be separately issued by DGFT (Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT): Ministry of Commerce & Industry pic.twitter.com/asBK3TykzQ

— ANI (@ANI) July 31, 2020

The move will make it difficult for shipments worth Rs 7,000 crore coming in from China, Vietnam, Malaysia and other countries to enter India and initially benefit contract manufacturers. It is expected to result in backward integration with investment in better assembly lines and component production. The curbs are unlikely to impact prices. The decision will impact the business of companies such as home-grown Vu, and China’s TCL. It will also affect the import of some high-end TV models from companies such as Sony, LG, Xiaomi and Samsung, even though a large part of their sales are through locally-made/sourced TVs, industry officials told TOI. Industry analysts said the decision to license TV set imports will knock out the “unfettered imports” that had been happening over the years, “much to the loss of Indian manufacturing”.

This is a welcome measure, and aggressively encourage more local assembly and manufacturing”, said Sunil Vachani, Chairman of local contract manufacturer Dixon Technologies, The home-grown Dixon makes TVs for companies such as Samsung and Xiaomi at its local factories.