India’s new flat panel duty could rewire global display economics, with major implications for digital signage: import dutys on finished flat panels are raised to 20%, while component tariffs are cut to boost local display assembly.
Manufacturing: India Pushes Domestic Display Production
Tariffs are dominating the news cycle these days, and in a move created to accelerate domestic electronics manufacturing, the Indian government has raised the Basic Customs Duty (BCD) on finished flat panel displays to 20 percent, while cutting the duty on open cells and key components to five percent and exempting parts used in open-cell production.
The policy, announced by the Union Finance Ministry and framed as a correction to an “inverted duty structure,” is designed to push more value addition and supply-chain localization in India, following the same phased-manufacturing model that previously made the country one of the world’s largest smartphone production hubs.
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A bet on local assembly and manufacturing
For the professional display and digital signage industry, the change directly affects the economics of importing complete LCD and LED panels, interactive flat panel displays, and other finished commercial screens, while making it more attractive to bring in open cells and components for local assembly and integration. In the short term, imported high-end panels are likely to face price pressure. Over the longer term, policymakers are betting that the structure will drive investment in local module assembly, open-cell integration, and, eventually, panel manufacturing itself.
The move comes amid a fast-growing but highly import-dependent display market. India’s overall display industry, spanning LCD, LED, and OLED across consumer and commercial applications, is valued at roughly US$6 billion annually, while the digital signage and professional display segment alone generated close to US$900 million in 2024 and is projected to exceed US$1.5 billion by the end of the decade.
Today, nearly 100 percent of flat panel displays used in India are imported, as the country has no large-scale, commercially operating LCD or LED panel manufacturing plants, with domestic activity largely limited to final assembly and system integration. Trade data shows India imported approximately US$2.7 billion worth of flat panel display modules in 2023, with China accounting for more than 70 percent of that total, showing why the new 20 percent duty on finished panels is widely seen as a strategic move to shift sourcing and manufacturing deeper into the country.
What the tariff shift means for digital signage
For digital signage networks, LED video wall suppliers, and commercial AV integrators, the policy effectively raises the cost of importing fully built displays while preserving lower duties on the building blocks needed for local integration. That could encourage more global OEMs, particularly Chinese manufacturers, to establish or expand assembly operations in India to remain competitive, rather than shipping finished modules directly to market.
For the display market, the objective is to build a self-sustaining supply chain that can serve India’s rapidly growing demand for LCD, LED, and interactive signage systems, while positioning the country over time as an export base for professional and consumer display products.
