NEW DELHI, Feb 1 (Reuters) - India has removed import

duties on some components key to producing mobile phones,

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced in the annual

budget on Saturday, in a boost for local production efforts and

benefiting firms such as Apple ( AAPL ) and Xiaomi ( XIACF ).

India's electronics production has more than doubled in the

last six years to $115 billion in 2024, with the country now

becoming the world's second-largest mobile phone manufacturer.

Apple ( AAPL ) led the India smartphone market with a 23% share in

total revenue during 2024, followed by Samsung at

22%, according to research firm Counterpoint.

The list included components for mobile phone assembly such

as printed circuit board assembly, parts of camera modules, and

USB cables, which were taxed at 2.5% earlier.

The cuts will help India better cope with a potentially

disruptive year of global trade due to U.S. President Donald

Trump's tariff threats.

As Trump hopes for his "America First" policies to lure more

manufacturing units back into the U.S., India is seeking to take

advantage of U.S.-China trade tensions to increase its own share

of global supply chains.

Internally, India's IT ministry had warned it risks losing

out to China and Vietnam in the smartphone exports race if it

were to not lower tariffs to lure global companies, Reuters

reported last year.

Sitharaman, in her budget last year, had announced a review

of the nation's customs duty rate structure to rationalise and

simplify tariffs for ease of trade.

The duty review also aimed at removing the so-called

inverted duty structures or instances where tariffs on raw

materials or intermediate goods are higher than the final

products they are used to produce.

India's complicated tariff structure is often cited as a

deterrent for efficient local production and a cause of

disputes.

(Reporting by Shivangi Acharya; Additional reporting by Munsif

Vengattil; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)