GST Hike on Smartphones in India: Here’s A List of Increased Prices

Apr. 1, 2020

If you have been keeping up with the news today, you must have seen a host of stories talking about thesmartphone price hikein India. I know, we are already dealing with a widespread COVID-19 pandemic, along with a 21-day total lockdown, andsmartphone sales have been halted. And now, it’s only disappointing to see the increased GST rates for smartphones and its components to go into effect.

To give you some background, India’s Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, recently announced that GST (goods and services tax) on smartphones will behiked from 12% to 18%(a steep 50% increase) from 1st April. Phone makers requested the government to rethink the decision, especially after theimport duty hike, but in vain. The updated GST rate came into effect today and thus, phone makers had no option but to ramp up the price of their products. They have been rushing to let users know of their revised product prices since this morning.

Most phone makers haveofficially announcedorupdated their websitesto reflect the new and revised prices, post the GST rate hike. So, we have compiled an extensive list of all smartphones that have seen a price bump — categorized by brands, along with a comparison between old and new prices. Check out the list of increased phone prices right here:

Xiaomi

The retail prices for some of the Redmi phones have already been live on e-commerce websites since Tuesday night. We listed those here, to begin with, but Xiaomi has now updated its official website. So, we’ve compiled a list of new prices for Xiaomi devices:

Note: List updated after the official Mi website was refreshed to include new pricing info on more Redmi phones.

So yeah, if you were planning to buy a smartphone after the 21-day lockdown in India came to an end, you will now have to shell out a couple thousand bucks extra for that same device. I know, the tax rate hike is disappointing and a regressive step from the country’s Finance Ministry. Does the price increase affect your plans of buying a new phone or not? Let us know in the comments below.