India's commerce and industry minister Suresh Prabhu has said the Centre would support US giant Apple to set up manufacturing unit in the country. Speaking in an interview, he said, “Let us get a good proposal from them... We will be very happy to receive Apple, one of the top brands in the world. We are willing to find out if there is any difficulty they may face. We will be more than happy to resolve that difficulty. So we will await a formal proposal.” He said that the Centre was willing to call all state chief ministers who are willing to give them the best deal.
The iPhone and iPad manufacturer has asked for several concessions to set up manufacturing unit in the country. The Centre had sought investment and job creation details from the iPhone maker to facilitate setting up its proposed manufacturing facility in India. The then commerce and industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman had in March informed the Rajya Sabha that the government has not accepted 'most of the demands' of the company. Apple India had sought concessions, including duty exemption on manufacturing and repair units, components, capital equipment and consumables for smartphone manufacturing and service/repair for a period of 15 years. It also wants relaxation in the mandated 30 per cent local sourcing of components, besides reduction in customs duties on completely-knocked-down and semi-knocked-down units of devices that are to be assembled in the country.
The tech giant does not manufacture devices, gets the job done instead through contract manufacturers. It sells its products through company-owned retail stores in countries like China, Germany, the US, the UK, and France, along with others.
