Xiaomi started making its Mi TVs in India since October 2018. Right after Indian government restricted TV imports, the Chinese tech giant favored the move and reportedly stated that India’s decision to restrict imports on TVs will boost local manufacturing.
For the uninitiated, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has recently amended a policy that restricts imports of TV sets. Right now, almost 35% of TVs sold in India are imported – mainly from China, Vietnam, and Malaysia.
Xiaomi’s decision to favor the decision doesn’t really come as a surprise since it is not even significantly affected by this change. In fact, the company says it locally manufactures over 85 percent of the Mi TVs sold in India.
“Currently, over 85% of our Mi TVs sold in India are manufactured in India. We believe that this decision will encourage and give a boost to local manufacturing,” said a Xiaomi India spokesperson.
On the other hand, this policy will affect unfamiliar brands that manage to sell several TV units through e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and Flipkart. In the fiscal year 2020, total imports under restricted category were worth $781 million, of which Vietnam accounted for $428.37 million and China contributed $292.48 million.
The change in policy probably won’t affect end-users in a noticeable way in terms of pricing of TVs and their availability. This is because popular smart TV brands are already assembling their TVs in India.
It is worth noting that the government has not imposed a ‘ban’ on TV imports. Brands will have the possibility to seek a relevant license from the government to proceed with the imports.
