Phone companies may invest Rs 650 Crores by March: Ravi Shankar Prasad

Mobile phone companies are expected to invest Rs 650 Crores by March and the production of handsets in value terms is expected to cross Rs 40,000 crore by the end of current fiscal, Parliament was informed today.

"The total investment made by companies during the past 7-8 months are estimated to be in the range of Rs 250-300 Crore which is likely to increase to Rs 600-650 crore by the end of 2015-16," Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in a written reply in Lok Sabha.

He was replying to a question on mobile phones production in the country.

"As per the Indian Cellular Associations, the production of mobile phones in India during current financial year is expected to cross Rs 40,000 crore compared to the production of Rs 18,900 crore during 2014-15," Prasad said.

"The differential duty for mobile handset manufacturing is being termed as a game changer by the industry and consequent to this various mobile phone manufacturing companies like Foxconn, Xiaomi, Micromax, Celkon and Karbonn have committed to mobile phone manufacturing in the country," Prasad said.

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