A group of Apple representatives will meet with senior officials from India’s Ministries of IT and finance on January 25 to discuss the US-based company’s demands for deploying a manufacturing unit in India, ET reports, without citing sources. Officials from the Departments of Commerce, Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Revenue, Environment and Forest, as well as Electronics and Information Technology (DeITY) will also participate in these planned meetings.
Apple has requested various incentives from the Indian government, including long-term duty exemptions, to enter India’s manufacturing market. Apple's products are currently manufactured in six countries, including Korea, Japan and the US.
India’s finance ministry had earlier rejected relaxing the 30 percent domestic sourcing tax requested by Apple as a pre-condition of bringing in FDI to set up single-brand retail stores in the country. Apple had sought exemption claiming that it makes cutting-edge technology products for which local sourcing is not possible. The government had also rejected Apple’s proposal to import refurbished phones and sell them in India.
