App Store prices set to increase in Brazil, India, South Africa, more

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app-store
App Store prices will be increasing.
Photo: Apple

If you live in Brazil, India, Indonesia, Russia, or South Africa, expect App Store prices to most likely increase over the coming days.

This will affect the price of apps and in-app purchases, and possibly other services like Apple Music — although auto-reneweable subscriptions won’t be affected.

On its website, Apple explains the reason for the change:

“When taxes or foreign exchange rates change, we sometimes need to update prices on the App Store. In the next few days, prices of apps and in-app purchases (excluding auto-renewable subscriptions) on the App Store will increase in Brazil, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Russia, and South Africa.”

There are different reasons why these price hikes have come into play around the world. For instance, in India the country has put an equalization levy of 2 percent in place, alongside an 18 percent existing goods and services tax. Indonesia will also add a new 10 percent value-added tax of 10 percent. This is for developers who are based outside the country. Developers are able to access more details of the tax increases through their accounts on the Apple Developer website.

This doesn’t necessarily mean price hikes for customers, of course — although it would make sense to assume that it does. Developers would have the opportunity to absorb the costs themselves and keep prices for end customers the same. However, it doesn’t necessarily make sense for a company to do this in most cases, which is why it seems inevitable that most will pass the cost along to consumers.

Source: Apple

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