Nokia 5 and Nokia 6 is Getting Delayed to Hit the Market in India as GST Confuses Retailers

Nokia came back to the phone industry with their three new Android phones launched a few months ago in China. But it’s only a few weeks earlier the launch in India took place and on the low-end one, Nokia 3 went on sale last week as well. Both Nokia 5 and Nokia 6 haven’t touched the market yet.

Nokia, under HMD global aims at dominating the offline smartphone user demographics now, found themselves in trouble as the new tax pattern for goods and services (GST) created confusion among retailers.

Nokia 5 and Nokia 6 is Getting Delayed to Hit the Market as GST Confuses Retailers

The low-end phone of the series Nokia 3 already went on sale in India a week ago on June 16 as the company wanted to reach out to the significant percentage of users under sub 10k category. As they gear up the release of the high-end models, GST kicks in, putting retailers into utter confusion.

The new tax model named GST (Goods and Services Tax) will come into effect on July 1^st and it directly affects the retailers. For the same reason, Nokia’s retail partners want to start selling the phones in a clean state once GST air gets cleared. Everyone now has only a blurred idea of how the new taxing pattern is going to work.

Our sources also said that GST is not the only reason Nokia 5 and 6 get delayed. HMD Global along with their manufacturing partner Foxconn wanted to set up the supply lines of Nokia 3 first. So, they churned out the low-end phone first in mass number and delivered the same to the retailers. As the time came for the other two phones, their strategy coupled with GST mist delayed making the devices available for purchase.

On the other hand, Nokia says they considered the new taxing pattern into consideration while pricing the phones. Hence, the prices (Rs. 14999 for Nokia 6 and Rs. 12899 for Nokia 5) will never change even after GST kicks in from July 1.

We are not sure when the confusion gets cleared and the phone hits the market. As GST is a whole new idea in India, it may take around a month to unravel the mystery with the entire market flow. But chances are great Nokia 5 and 6 may go on sale within weeks after GST comes into effect.

If you want to purchase a phone (not Nokia 5 or 6), now is the best time because both online and offline retailers are conducting pre-GST sales with great discounts.