BENGALURU: Dell may look at India as a hub for desktop and laptop manufacturing for neighbouring countries and West Asia and use the unutilised capacity at its hardware manufacturing unit in the country if the government reduces taxes on exports.
“Our plant’s capacity is 3 million units. We are making around 1.4-1.5 million units. The balance capacity can very easily be met by a few countries around us,” Dell India president Alok Ohrie told ET. Dell has a manufacturing unit at Sriperambudur near Chennai which produces laptops and desktops for the local market. India’s PC market was around 9.3 million in 2018, a market that has seen muted growth in the year.
“Two years back, there was a change that was brought into Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) and they reintroduced a tax that existed for any export. It is about 4% and that is substantial,” said Ohrie.
The company is in talks with the government through the industry body Manufacturers Association for Information Technology (MAIT) to represent this matter. A MAIT official, however, did not comment on the matter.
Dell India said it is actively participating in this matter with peers and has got a positive feedback. “Very positive...they have asked us to consolidate the total number that we would see.” India has been positioning itself to attract hardware firms to set up units in the country. While the country has successfully lured smartphone firms such as Samsung and Wistron, supplier of Apple to locate units due to its large smartphone subscriber base, it has struggled with getting large-scale investment in computer hardware. Dell said it has the second largest facility in India in terms of workforce after the US and complex technology works have been happening in India offices.
The firm is growing at higher than “15%” in India.
Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com