The government has decided to hike customs duty again on imported mobile phones from 15% to 20%, in a move designed to protect local manufacturing. The higher tariffs take effect from April 1.

The move, which will make imported iPhones more expensive, follows less than two months after the country raised the import duty from 10 percent to 15 percent. This move will not just affect iPhones though, even Google's Pixel smartphones are set to go up by 3-4% due to the increase. Luckily, we shouldn't be seeing any price hike on the iPhone SE because it is assembled in India. 

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Apple has been trying to assemble it's devices for a long time in India but has always found itself in some bureaucratic hurdle or the other. Apple has been negotiating with the Indian government to lower tariffs on certain components, but the increased duties are still not in its favour. 

A senior industry executive told Economic Times that smartphone makers may decide to absorb a part of the duty increase because Apple had increased iPhone prices by an average 3.5% in December after the government had raised import duties by 5%. Apple declined to comment.

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The increase on import duties is designed to promote local manufacturing. The moves taken by the government to ensure local sourcing have started paying off though - multiple companies like Samsung, Xiaomi, Vivo, Oppo and BlackBerry have started making / assembling phones in India to avoid the high import duty and also further gain benefits the government has to offer under the 'Make in India' scheme. The fact that the phones are sourced in India is often a point of emphasis for these companies and another marketing point to the consumer. 

Last year, Apple supplier, Wistron started producing iPhone SE models in India. This week, we reported that the supplier is now close to agreeing on a deal that will allow it to expand its manufacturing to begin building iPhone 6s handsets in India as well.

Around 75% of all cellphones sold in India last year were assembled in the country, said Tarun Pathak, an analyst at Counterpoint Research to CNN.