Electronics Exports Slow Down in Dec Data

Among all electronics goods, laptops/tablets/PCs is the largest category of imported products valued at close to Rs 30,000 crore while exports are abysmally low at Rs 122 crore during calendar year 2020.

India’s exports of electronics goods have not only recovered to pre-Covid levels but also touched an all time high of Rs 8,806 crore in the month of December 2020, data released by commerce ministry last week showed.

Of this, mobile phones remained the top contributor with exports worth Rs 3,061 crore - or roughly 35% of total electronics exports - which though is still to reach pre-Covid levels which were as high as Rs 3,254 crore.

For 2020, however, electronics exports declined 4.32% to Rs 73,132 crore due to washout of production for 45 days during shutdown of factories. Import also continued to remain high at Rs 3.5 lakh crore as India mostly imports components required to assemble electronic goods which are then exported.

Besides smartphones, electronics goods comprises computers/laptops, electric inverters, transformers, battery chargers, scanners, printers, speakers, TVs, base stations and microprocessors.

The National Policy on Electronics 2019 envisages total production of electronics in India to the tune of $400 billion by 2025. Close to $190 billion, or 48% of this is expected to come from mobile phones as per official figures.

Further, the industry is estimating that 13% of this target production can be achieved from laptops, tablets or PCs and another 22% from industrial electronics.

Although, handset production is steadily catching up to targeted levels with production in FY21 estimated to be Rs 2.14 lakh crore, laptops and PC segment is still lagging behind.

For instance, among all electronics goods, laptops/tablets/PCs is the largest category of imported products valued at close to Rs 30,000 crore while exports are abysmally low at Rs 122 crore during calendar year 2020.

The central government has announced a production-linked incentive scheme for ICT hardware with a total outlay of Rs 7,350 crore over a four-year period which is expected to generate incremental production of Rs 3.26 lakh crore, 75% of which will be for exports. The scheme will kick start on April 1, 2021.