{"id":1035269,"date":"2026-09-15T07:25:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T01:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/?p=1035269"},"modified":"2026-09-15T07:31:53","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T02:01:53","slug":"cut-gst-on-mobile-phones-to-5-rising-component-prices-hit-affordability-industry-to-fm-nirmala-sitharaman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/2026\/09\/15\/cut-gst-on-mobile-phones-to-5-rising-component-prices-hit-affordability-industry-to-fm-nirmala-sitharaman\/","title":{"rendered":"Cut GST on mobile phones to 5%; rising component prices hit affordability: Industry to FM Nirmala Sitharaman"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>NEW DELHI: The top handset makers have reiterated their demand that goods and services tax (GST) levied on such devices be cut from 18% presently to 5%, as a sharp increase in memory prices has led to an increase in costs and is pressuring entry-level buyers in the sub-\u20b910,000 segment. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cA 5% GST rate will stimulate the domestic market by reducing the upfront cost of smartphones and feature phones; encouraging consumers to replace older devices; supporting the migration of feature-phone and 2G users to smartphones; and expanding demand in rural and lower-income markets,\u201d Pankaj Mohindroo, chairman of the India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA), wrote in a letter to Union Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NEW DELHI: The top handset makers have reiterated their demand that goods and services tax (GST) levied on such devices be cut from 18% presently to 5%, as a sharp increase in memory prices has led to an increase in costs and is pressuring entry-level buyers in the sub-\u20b910,000 segment. \u201cA 5% GST rate will stimulate the domestic market by reducing the upfront cost of smartphones and feature phones; encouraging consumers to replace older devices; supporting the migration of feature-phone and 2G users to smartphones; and expanding demand in rural and lower-income markets,\u201d Pankaj Mohindroo, chairman of the India Cellular [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,60,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1035269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newspapers","category-telecom-the-economic-times","category-the-economic-times"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1035269"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1035284,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035269\/revisions\/1035284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1035269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1035269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomlive.in\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1035269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}