Taxes on Electronics: What You Need to Know About India's Levies and Impact

Taxes on Electronics

When you buy a new smartphone, laptop, or TV in India, you're not just paying for the device—you're paying taxes on electronics, government levies applied to imported and locally made electronic goods. Also known as electronic product taxation, these fees are built into the final price and play a big role in shaping what gets made, sold, and bought across the country.

Taxes on electronics aren’t just one flat rate. They include import duties, fees charged on devices brought into India from overseas, GST (Goods and Services Tax), a multi-tiered consumption tax applied at every stage of sale, and sometimes special surcharges for specific categories like smartphones or TVs. For example, smartphones imported from China or Vietnam face higher customs duties today than they did five years ago—part of India’s push to make local manufacturing more competitive. These aren’t random numbers; they’re policy tools. The government uses them to protect homegrown companies like those making circuit boards or assembly lines in Tamil Nadu or Uttar Pradesh, and to reduce reliance on foreign supply chains.

It’s not just about cost. These taxes directly influence whether a company chooses to build a factory in India or keep production overseas. If the tax on importing a circuit board is too high, a startup might decide to source it from Malaysia instead. But if the tax on finished phones is high enough, and local production gets subsidies, suddenly making phones in India becomes the smarter move. That’s why you’re seeing more brands like Xiaomi, Samsung, and even Apple ramping up assembly plants here. It’s not charity—it’s math. Taxes change the equation.

And it’s not just big brands. Small manufacturers making smart home gadgets, audio accessories, or repair parts also feel the pinch. A $50 component might cost $65 after duties and GST. That’s a 30% hit before they even start assembling. But here’s the flip side: when local production grows, so does the demand for skilled workers, tooling suppliers, and testing labs—all of which create a ripple effect through the economy. The same taxes that raise prices also help build infrastructure for future innovation.

What you’ll find in the posts below isn’t just a list of tax rates. It’s a look at how electronics manufacturing in India is changing because of them. You’ll see how companies are adapting, where the real cost savings are hiding, and why some products are getting cheaper while others keep climbing in price. Whether you’re a buyer, a builder, or just curious why your new tablet costs what it does, these stories show the real-world impact of rules written in Delhi but felt in every city, town, and village across India.