The prices of the leading consumer appliance television sets are likely to be raised by at least Rs 2,000-3,000 starting April 1st, 2021 due to the rising cost of key input materials.
The prices of TV panels (open cell) have been on a continuous rise to the tune of more than double, mainly due to supply shortage by global vendors, other factors that are leading to this surge are – a hike in customs duty, rise in the cost of input material like copper, aluminium and steel and an increase in ocean and air freights charges, that is collectively set to put the prices on fire.
Owing to this, the local TV manufacturers have been constantly appealing the government to take up TV manufacturing under the PLI Scheme. TVs comprise a large chunk of the consumer electronics market with over 85% market penetration rate. It is preempted that there will be a boom in the television manufacturing sector, including global brands from across the world, that will now look to partner with local manufacturers.
If the industry is looking to establish a global competitiveness and gain cost advantage, then PLI must be extended to TVs also. Avneet Singh Marwah, CEO, Super Plastronics Pvt. Ltd., a leading TV manufacturing firm and India Licensee of Thomson and Kodak smart TVs in India, says, “Currently only a handful of Chinese and Taiwanese firms control the flat-panel market and that allows them to raise prices, which hurts our costing.