New 5% Excise Duty to cause price hike on Apple iPads, iMacs &
Well, this is disappointing—the Nepal government has decided to slap a 5% excise duty tax on iPad, iMac, Mac Mini, and hard drives. So expect a price hike on these Apple products and hard drives in the coming days.
What is excise duty?
Excise duty is basically a kind of indirect tax levied on the production and sale of goods like tobacco, alcohol, and luxury goods. Honestly speaking, this doesn’t make a lot of sense. An excise tax should be levied on luxury items, not smartphones, computers, and hard drives that have become essential today. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, the “iPad” might be a “luxurious” device but something like the iMac or the Mac Mini are work machines for content creators and businesses.
Even more absurd is considering hard drives a luxury. Hard drives are the most economical and practical way of storing large amounts of data for any organization. Most of the time, it’s essential for storing customer data, work files, and media. It makes no sense why it would be a “luxury” item.
Regardless I guess we shouldn’t be surprised by this decision as the government already has a 5% excise duty on smartphones.
Price Hike on Apple iPad
Known for their sleek design, friendly UI, and versatility, iPads are by far the most popular product in the tablet space. Everything from the base iPads to iPad minis and iPad Airs, and iPad Pros are often unrivaled in their respective price segments. Currently, you can purchase the latest 10th Gen base iPad, 6th Gen Mini, and M2 iPad Pro from authorized stores. But with the new excise duty, they will get more expensive now.
| Apple iPad Model | Current price | New Price (estimate) | |
| iPad 10.2 (2021, 9th Gen) | |||
| 64GB, WiFi only | Rs. 55,000 | Rs. 57,750 | |
| 64GB, WiFi + Cellular | Rs. 77,500 | Rs. 81,375 | |
| 256GB, WiFi only | Rs. 81,900 | Rs. 85,995 | |
| 256GB, WiFi + Cellular | Rs. 104,900 | Rs. 110,145 | |
| iPad 10.9 (2022, 10th Gen) | |||
| 64GB, WiFi only | Rs. 78,000 | Rs. 81,900 | |
| 256GB, WiFi only | Rs. 99,500 | Rs. 104,475 | |
| iPad mini 6th Gen (2021) | |||
| 64GB, WiFi only | Rs. 85,000 | Rs. 89,250 | |
| 64GB, WiFi + Cellular | Rs. 108,000 | Rs. 113,400 | |
| 256GB, WiFi only | Rs. 115,000 | Rs. 120,750 | |
| 256GB, WiFi + Cellular | Rs. 135,000 | Rs. 141,750 | |
| iPad Air 5th Gen (2022) | |||
| 64GB, WiFi only | Rs. 95,000 | Rs. 99,750 | |
| 256GB, WiFi only | Rs. 119,900 | Rs. 125,895 | |
| iPad Pro (2020) | |||
| 11” | 1TB, WiFi | Rs. 168,900 | Rs. 177,345 |
| 1TB, WiFi + Cellular | Rs. 188,900 | Rs. 198,345 | |
| 12.9” | 256GB, WiFi + Cellular | Rs. 168,900 | Rs. 177,345 |
| 512GB, WiFi | Rs. 168,900 | Rs. 177,345 | |
| 512GB, WiFi + Cellular | Rs. 188,900 | Rs. 198,345 | |
| 1TB, WiFi | Rs. 188,900 | Rs. 198,345 | |
| iPad Pro M1 (2021) | |||
| 11” | 512GB, WiFi | Rs. 185,000 | Rs. 194,250 |
| 1TB, WiFi | Rs. 225,000 | Rs. 236,250 | |
| 1TB, WiFi + Cellular | Rs. 250,000 | Rs. 262,500 | |
| 2TB, WiFi | Rs. 295,000 | Rs. 309,750 | |
| 2TB, WiFi + Cellular | Rs. 310,000 | Rs. 325,500 | |
| 12.9” | 256GB, WiFi | Rs. 180,000 | Rs. 189,000 |
| 512GB, WiFi | Rs. 215,000 | Rs. 225,750 | |
| 1TB, WiFi | Rs. 270,000 | Rs. 283,500 | |
| 1TB, WiFi + Cellular | Rs. 298,000 | Rs. 312,900 | |
| 2TB, WiFi | Rs. 325,000 | Rs. 341,250 | |
| iPad Pro M2 (2022) | |||
| 11” | 128GB, WiFi | Rs. 132,500 | Rs. 139,125 |
| 256GB, WiFi | Rs. 149,000 | Rs. 156,450 | |
| 512GB, WiFi | Rs. 184,500 | Rs. 193,725 | |
| 12.9” | 128GB, WiFi | Rs. 184,500 | Rs. 193,725 |
| 256GB, WiFi | Rs. 199,500 | Rs. 209,475 | |
Price Hike on Apple iMac and Mac Mini
Similar is the story with the iMac and Mac Mini. With the excise duty, they too are getting more expensive too.
| iMac, Mac Mini Model | Current price | New price (estimate) |
| iMac 24 (M1, 7C GPU, 8/256GB) | Rs. 205,000 | Rs. 215,250 |
| iMac 24 (M1, 8C GPU, 8/256GB) | Rs. 235,000 | Rs. 246,750 |
| iMac 24 (M1, 8C GPU, 8/512GB) | Rs. 265,000 | Rs. 278,250 |
| Mac Mini (M1, 8/256GB) | Rs. 110,000 | Rs. 115,500 |
| Mac Mini (M1, 8/512GB) | Rs. 140,000 | Rs. 147,000 |
| Mac Mini (M2, 8C CPU, 10C GPU, 8/256GB) | Rs. 102,000 | Rs. 107,100 |
| Mac Mini (M2, 8C CPU, 10C GPU, 8/512GB) | Rs. 135,000 | Rs. 141,750 |
| Mac Mini (M2 Pro, 10 CPU, 16 GPU, 16/512GB) | Rs. 217,000 | Rs. 227,850 |
Finally, hard drives are getting pricier too. Some popular hard drive brands in Nepal are Toshiba, Kingston, Transcend, Seagate, and Adata. They will also be affected by this 5% price increase due to the new excise duty.
