CEAMA: Mobiles and Communications Council

Consumer Electronics and Appliances Manufacturers Association (CEAMA), the apex Chamber for the Consumer Electronics and Home Appliances Industry in India has announced its extension, a Mobiles and Communications Council to advocate on the mobility industry. The council is expected to provide a forum for discussion and exchange of ideas between the member telecom equipment and mobile manufacturers.

CEAMA is the promoter of Electronics manufacturing industry and this new council in collaboration with other industry associations will provide a consensus view of the Government on crucial issues pertaining to the growth and development of the Indian mobility industry from its existing scenario. Also, it will dedicate itself to assist member firms in raising the issues, enabling formulation of suitable policies to incentivize growth of the industry.

“The local component ecosystem is still not fully in place, resulting in dependency on international machinery and mechanisms. Therefore, the Industry should be given an opportunity to build the ecosystem and encourage the initiatives being taken in this area. We believe the new Mobile and Communication council will appropriately connect and able to propagate the recommendations of industry players to government and policy makers. CEAMA along with other industry players are working to ensure that majority of components be made domestically, which will need time and further encouragement by the government to make this happen," said Manish Sharma, President CEAMA and Managing Director Panasonic India & South Asia.

With Smartphone industry witnessing booming growth, there is an immense scope of bringing out synergies among Consumers Durables with handset Industry in the near future. The debut of this new council is also expected to support and promote Government’s Make in India initiative.

In the recent Union budget, the Government had levied Basic Customs Duty, Countervailing Duty and Special Additional Duty on Charger/Adapter, Battery and Wired headsets/speakers. At present, the domestic mobile manufacturer pays 29 percent as customs duty on these accessories and 2 percent levy in respect of populated PCBs, whereas importers of mobile CBU have to pay only 12.5 percent for the same inputs. The above items constitute about 10 percent to 30 percent of the cost of mobile manufacturing depending upon the nature of the mobile handset. This is affecting all major manufacturers and such anomalies will adversely affect the ‘Make in India’ initiative.

Ravinder Zutshi, Chairman, CEAMA – Mobile and Communications Council said, “It’s a great move by CEAMA’s President by proposing to create a Mobile and Communications Council, which gets an approval from EC members. As the Chairman of the council, I believe that together with our stakeholders we will create value addition for the mobile manufacturers in the country. The council will strive to facilitate the formation of an ecosystem that provides a nurturing policy, regulatory and legal framework for the industry.”