India paves way for Apple, others to increase domestic production by removing a clause | Economic Times

New Delhi: The government has dropped contentious clauses including the evaluation of plant and machinery to be brought from China and South Korea, which had been opposed by smartphone makers, paving the way for Apple and others like Samsung, Foxconn, Oppo, Vivo, and Flextronics to make a larger play in local production using the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme. “The empowered committee of secretaries met on Friday and decided to remove the clause, which evaluated plant and machinery brought into India at 40% of its value, and has agreed to a few other changes so that manufacturing could shift to India in a big way,” an official aware of the discussions at the meeting told ET.ET had reported in its May 11 edition that Apple through its contract manufacturers Wistron and Foxconn could shift a significant portion of its manufacturing facility to India under the proposed PLI scheme. However, the iPhone manufacturer had raised concerns regarding certain clauses, including valuation of plant and machinery with the government. The government is also in discussions with a third Apple contract manufacturer, Pegatron, to relocate part of its manufacturing to India, the official said.76098499 “The irritants have been resolved,” the official added. Through the scheme, India is trying to attract American investment with pressure on US companies now to diversify manufacturing out of China under the ‘China plus one strategy’. Among the changes agreed to on Friday were to include the industry in discussions before making any changes to the PLI scheme once these companies have invested and started producing in the country.