Lower GST on electronics to 18% for industry to grow, says Kodak’s partner

Bengaluru

The Indian electronics industry won’t take off until the sector is brought under a ‘comfortable and convenient’ tax regime, warned the Indian partner of New York-based Kodak, a technology and imaging business conglomerate.

Electronic products attract 28% goods and services tax (GST) in the country, the highest such levy on the electronics sector globally, and the industry won’t grow if the tax is not immediately lowered to 18%, said Avneet Singh Marwah, CEO, Super Plastronics, the exclusive manufacturer of Kodak products in India.

“The pandemic brought immense instability in the entire electronics sector. A massive chip shortage only worsened the situation. Tax rationalisation is critical as the sector is now going through extremely tough times. A reasonable reduction in levies will also raise customer sentiments and bring buoyancy in the market,” he anticipated.

Mr. Marwah further said in addition to heavy taxation, the industry was also suffering from rampant under-invoicing by certain manufacturers. The import of display panels, specifically, had been grossly underrepresented, and this was causing massive revenue loss to the government, he pointed out.

“It is already harming the industry as it has a major impact on direct and indirect taxes. We can see factual evidence of these false declarations,” he added.

Commenting on the chip shortage, he said, “We will see things start to shift and settle down by the end of 2022. Next year, we will witness stability in the price of chips as well.”

According to Mr. Marwah, Kotak continued to remain bullish on the Indian marketplace, making a wide variety of products such as smart TVs, washing machines and other appliances available across more than 80,000 pin codes in the country.

“Kodak will invest ₹500 crore this year to expand our production capacity in India. We are also targeting to sell half-a-million units to achieve a revenue of over ₹700 crore in 2022,’‘ he added.