Vaishnaw cites ₹25,000 crore in direct taxes to defend India’s mobile incentives
India’s electronics minister says mobile manufacturers generated more in direct tax than the government paid in incentives. Two reports give sharply different GST figures.
India’s electronics and IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw defended the country’s mobile phone manufacturing incentives in New Delhi on Wednesday, October 28, saying beneficiaries had generated ₹25,000 crore in direct tax after receiving ₹19,000 crore in incentives. He also said mobile manufacturing employs 12 lakh people. The figures matter to a debate over whether public subsidies are strengthening India’s phone industry, but they are government claims rather than an independent assessment of the programme’s returns.
Vaishnaw’s remarks responded to a media opinion video arguing that the cost of importing components could outweigh the gains from exporting subsidised finished phones, according to a PTI report published by The Hindu. The minister also put employment across electronics manufacturing at 25 lakh people.
Why the reported GST figures differ
The two reports give substantially different figures for the GST Vaishnaw cited. The Times of India reports ₹3,000 crore; The Hindu’s PTI report says ₹3 lakh crore and uses that figure to calculate ₹3.25 lakh crore in combined direct tax and GST. The discrepancy is unresolved, so the larger combined total cannot be treated as established.
What India’s new mobile manufacturing scheme proposes
The government has moved to a new Mobile Phone Manufacturing Scheme after its earlier large-scale electronics production incentive programme ended on March 31, The Times of India reported. The Cabinet approved the new ₹62,500 crore programme in July for fiscal years 2026–27 through 2030–31. It is intended to increase domestic production and sourcing of components, an issue at the centre of the criticism Vaishnaw addressed.
Under the new scheme, eligible mobile phone sales carry incentives of 2.25% to 5%, with up to another 1.5% for domestic sourcing of key components and sub-assemblies, according to The Times of India. The programme also provides support for Indian phone brands tied to design and research and development. The electronics ministry projects roughly ₹39 lakh crore in phone production over the scheme’s duration and around 60,000 direct jobs.
The production and export figures behind the debate
Earlier government data cited by The Hindu put mobile phone exports at ₹2 lakh crore in fiscal year 2025. It said imports accounted for about 0.02% of domestic demand in 2024–25, compared with 75% a decade earlier. Those figures describe a changed market, although they do not establish how much of the change resulted from incentives.
The same data put electronics production at about ₹11.3 lakh crore in 2024–25, up from ₹1.9 lakh crore in 2014–15. Mobile phone production rose from about ₹0.18 lakh crore to ₹5.5 lakh crore over that period, while electronics exports increased from ₹0.38 lakh crore to around ₹3.3 lakh crore. The new scheme’s component-sourcing incentives target the part of the supply chain highlighted in the criticism of the earlier programme.
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Sources and context
- Rs 25,000 crore in taxes, 12 lakh jobs: Vaishnaw backs mobile PLI schemeThe Times of India
- Govt. collects ₹3.25 lakh cr. in taxes against ₹19,000 cr. mobile PLI: VaishnawThe Hindu (PTI report)
AI-assisted article checked against the listed sources. NewsJaws did not conduct interviews or attend the reported events.