India has no plans to ban sale of Chinese smartphones under Rs 12,000, confirms IT minister 

The IT minister said that though Indian companies have a crucial role to play in the country’s electronic ecosystem, this does not mean that foreign brands should be excluded to make way for Indian companies.

Smartphone companies like Oppo, Vivo, Xiaomi and others can finally heave a sigh of relief as India currently does not have any plans to ban the sale of phones under Rs 12,000. As per reports, the government has asked the smartphone makers to increase exports from India. Also, no proposals were made to ban the sale of smartphones below Rs 12,000, the union minister of information and technology, Rajeev Chandrashekhar has revealed.The IT minister further added that though Indian companies have a crucial role to play in the country’s electronic ecosystem, this does not mean that foreign brands should be excluded to make way for the Indian companies."Only issue that we have raised and done very transparently with some of the Chinese brands is that we have said that our expectation is that they will do more exports, '' Chandrashekhar told the PTI. "Their supply chain, specially components supply chain, need to be more transparent and much more open... (On) the other narrative about crowding them out from a particular segment (sub-Rs 12,000) of the market, we don't have any proposal and I am not sure where it came from," he added.

Earlier, Livemint claimed that India is planning to ban the sale of Chinese smartphones under Rs 12,000 in the country to bolster the sales of homegrown brands like Jio, Lava, Micromax and others. However, the government has denied the claims for now.Interestingly, the Chinese smartphone companies currently dominate the sub-12,000 segment in India.

The government is keeping a close eye on Chinese companies and the recent raids on Oppo and Xiaomi are testimony to the fact that the companies are under the scanner.In the recent past, the offices of some Chinese smartphone makers were raided and they were even charged by the ED over alleged tax evasion.

To recall, the government banned close to 50 Chinese apps in 2020. The apps that were banned also included TikTok, PUBG and many others. PUBG did make a comeback in India with a different name, but recently the government ordered Google and Apple to remove Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) app or the Indian version of PUBG Mobile from the Play store as well as the Apple App store. The app is no longer available for download in India.