Samsung finds govt sops to resume TV production not according to its script

The government's offer of reducing customs duty on key components will not suffice

Samsung India, the largest electronics manufacturer in the country, does not find the central government’s offer of incentives to restart television manufacturing attractive enough. It plans to ask for more benefits such as lower corporate tax and tax holiday, in line with what Vietnam offers, sources in the know said.

The Gurugram-headquartered entity halted production of TV sets in India last year, after the government raised the import duty on key components like LCD/LED panels and open cells. The manufacturing base was shifted to Vietnam.

In recent discussions, government officials said they were open to consider reducing the duties on the two key components, which form over half the total production cost of LCD and LED sets.

According to sources, the government’s offer of reducing the customs duty on key components will not suffice. 

Samsung is one of the top players in the Indian TV market for close to two decades. 

The Centre had raised the tariff on panels to 7.5 per cent in December 2017 and then to 15 per cent in February 2018. That on open cells was hiked to 10 per cent from nil. Later, in March last year, the duty on open cells was reduced to 5 per cent.

Consequently, Samsung shifted its manufacturing from its factory in Chennai to Vietnam. It was producing 300,000 flat panel TVs a year from Chennai.