On April 1st, even as the country struggles with a viral pandemic, a bunch of smartphone brands announced they will be hiking prices of their devices. This is not an April Fool's joke. Oppo, Realme, Xiaomi — They all raised the prices of their smartphones, blaiming the government of India for hiking the GST rate for mobile phones even as global supply chains are disrupted due to the coronavirus pandemic raging across the world.
The Indian government hiked the GST on mobile phones from 12 percent to 18 percent from April 1, 2020. This, compounded with the supply chain and logistics disruption caused by the nation-wide lockdown has further led to the increase in prices. Fluctuations and depreciation of currency value are also being blamed for this.
After Xiaomi’s Manu Kumar Jain announced the hike in prices from April 1st, Poco India General Manager C. Manmohan also chimed in with a hike in the prices for the Poco X2. Oppo and Realme also followed suit with announcements explaining why they have to raise prices at a time when the economy is already going to recession.
"Today we are announcing that realme smartphones will have to boost the prices up for the first time since 2018. It’s never easy for realme as a new brand to keep providing the latest technologies across different price segments in India. We sincerely hope you will continue to support not only us but also the whole smartphone industry, for more amazing technologies and surprises in the future,” Realme wrote in a statement.
Oppo too has given in to the hike in GST and according to a Twitter update from a Mumbai-based smartphone retailer, Mahesh Telecom, the company has hiked the market operating price (MOP) of as many as 11 smartphones. Check the list below for the change in prices.
Similarly, the new prices of Realme smartphones are reflecting Realme’s official website. The Realme 6 and Realme 6 Pro both got a price bump of Rs 1,000 and will be sold at Rs 13,999 and Rs 17,999 respectively. The Realme X2 Pro and the Realme X50 Pro saw a price hike of Rs 2,000 and will be sold starting Rs 29,999 and Rs 39,999 respectively. Other models also received a similar Rs 500-Rs 1000 hike in prices.
Xiaomi’s hike in prices have also started reflecting on Flipkart and on Mi.com. The Poco X2 which originally launched at Rs 16,999 is now being listed at Rs 17,999. The Redmi K20 and the K20 Pro has seen a price hike of Rs 2,000 as well. Xiaomi’s official website are yet to show the updated prices. You can check them out on Flipkart.
Going by the looks of it, other smartphone brands are also expected to jack up prices to absorb the higher GST rate and supply chain disruptions in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak.
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