iPhone 16 Professional Max is being smuggled into India to beat the nation’s excessive costs – Uplaza

Officers at Delhi airport have reported that they seized a complete of 38 iPhone 16 Professional Max items in two separate incidents on the identical day.

First, a gaggle of 4 passengers arriving from Dubai tried to cover 12 iPhone 16 Professional Max items by wrapping them in tissue paper. Later that day, one other passenger arriving from Hong Kong to the identical airport tried to smuggle 26 iPhone 16 Professional Max fashions in her self-importance bag.

Had all the smuggling been profitable, the quantity of tax the federal government would have misplaced out on would have been round $14,000. That is as a result of the associated fee distinction between the iPhones in different nations versus the retail Indian worth could be over $500 greater than the US base worth.

For comparability, a base iPhone 16 Professional Max sells for $1,199 within the US, whereas in India the bottom worth interprets to $1,724, or 144,900 rupee.

The worth distinction is mainly as a result of India locations a excessive import tax on sure gadgets, akin to iPhones. The intention is to encourage firms to fabricate gadgets inside the nation, which was initially one motive why Apple started making iPhones in India for native sale.

Apple is now more and more manufacturing iPhones within the nation, however the majority are for export and so aren’t topic to the tax. In November 2023, although, the Indian authorities started an investigation that would but see Apple going through a $600 million levy associated to its accounting practices over the native subsidiary shopping for iPhones for native resale.

All 38 iPhones had been seized by customs officers. It isn’t identified whether or not the smugglers will probably be charged, nor how these 38 on the identical day evaluate to earlier ranges of smuggling into the nation.