High Iphone 13 demand causes seizure of illegal imported phones

The Mumbai unit of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) busted an Apple iphone smuggling racket and has seized over 3,600 handsets of the recently launched iphone 13 series. The items were imported as ‘memory chips’ to evade customs duty, the federal agency said.


The total value of the seized goods is around Rs. 42.86 crore, while the declared value of the goods was only Rs. 80 lakhs.

DRI is India's apex anti-smuggling intelligence, investigations and operations agency ..

“After developing precise intelligence, officers of DRI inspected two consignments on Friday. These consignments had arrived from Hong Kong, at the Air Cargo Complex (ACC), Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai. In the import documents, the goods were declared as “memory cards”. Physical examination, however, revealed that the consignments actually contained a total of 3,646 iPhone-13 mobile phones,” the agency said in its statement.

Other than iPhones, 12 handsets of Google Pixel 6 pro 12 and an Apple Smart watch was also apprehended.

iPhone 13 models went for sale in India from September onwards, with a base price of Rs. 70,000 and some of the higher-end models costing up to Rs. 1,80,000. Import of mobile phones into India attracts effective Customs Duty of around 44%.


“The detection of attempted smuggling of these high-end phones of latest models in such large numbers shows how quickly the smugglers establish their smuggling networks for the latest products, like iPhone 13,” the statement added.

“Electronics industry was chosen as a thrust area for the Government of India’s ‘Make in India’ initiative. There has been a sustained policy to increase domestic mobile phones manufacturing. As part of that, the share of iPhones manufactured in India has gone up to 75% in 2021, from 5% in 2017. iPhones have about 15% market share in India, much below US and EU levels. The rise in local production can be attributed to the Government of India's *‘Make in India’* and *‘Atmanirbhar Bharat'* initiatives,” said an official dwelling on the case.


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