India just hit Apple and other smartphone makers with higher duty

The country’s government has announced it will raise customs import duty on imported mobile phones from 15% to 20%, reports Bloomberg. The move is designed to help promote domestic manufacturing. That’s not good news for Apple and other foreign smartphone makers, however. The duty rise will either reduce their profits in the country, or need to be passed on to Indian consumers in a price rise, which could hurt sales. India is the world’s fastest-growing smartphone market and the government wants to use that to the country’s advantage to push companies to establish more manufacturing facilities in the country.