iPhone 16 Pro Max smartphones are smuggled into India to avoid high prices in the country

Officials at the Delhi airport said they seized a total of 38 units iPhone 16 Pro Max in two separate incidents on the same day.

Initially, a group of four passengers who arrived from Dubai tried to hide 12 units of iPhone 16 Pro Max by wrapping them in paper napkins. Later that day, another passenger arriving from Hong Kong at the same airport tried to smuggle 26 iPhone 16 Pro Max models in her make-up bag.

If all the smuggling was successful, the amount of tax the government would have lost would be about $14,000. This is because the difference in the cost of an iPhone in other countries compared to the retail price in India can be more than $500 over the US base price.

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In comparison, the base iPhone 16 Pro Max retails for $1,199 in the US, while the base price in India is $1,724, or Rs 144,900.

The price difference is mainly due to India imposing a high import tax on certain devices such as the iPhone. The goal is to encourage companies to manufacture devices within the country, which was one of the reasons Apple initially started making iPhones in India for local sales.

Apple is now increasingly making iPhones in the country, but most of them are for export and therefore not subject to taxation. However, in November 2023, the Indian government launched an investigation that could result in Apple facing a $600 million tax charge related to its accounting practices for a local subsidiary that buys iPhones for local resale.

All 38 iPhones were confiscated by customs. It is currently unknown whether the smugglers will be charged, nor how the 38 devices on the same day compare to previous levels of smuggling into the country.