India has imposed a customs duty of 5 percent on the import of key components used in manufacturing LCD and LED TVs. The notification was issued by the Finance Ministry and the duty went into effect from 1st October.

Earlier, the Ministry of Electronics and IT had proposed to impose a duty of 5 percent on open cell panels and bring the pure cell to zero percent in a bid to encourage the process of polariser film and COF bonding for open-cell.

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ICEA, which is representing companies like LG, Xiaomi, and Micromax among others, has been opposing the move claiming concerns about the implementation as the anomaly in the differentiation of open-cell with bonding and open-cell without bonding — pure cell — still remains a challenge.

Last month, the body had written a letter to Revenue Secretary seeking an extension on zero duty on the open cell imports for three more years. It argued that the policy has given a huge fillip to domestic manufacturing of LED televisions and has also led to a reduction in imports from ASEAN countries.

It has also warned of the growth of the grey market on imposing 5 percent duty. It also claims that there will be a rise in imports of LED TVs, giving a major blow to the government’s ambitious Make In India initiative.

The Indian Smart TV market is poised to grow further as the Internet is penetrating at a faster pace and OTT consumption is growing in the market. Currently, Xiaomi is leading the Smart TV market in India, followed by LG and Samsung.

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