Television prices may rise by 3-5 percent by October 2021, with the government mulling a hike in import duty on open-cell panels. This is likely in the beginning of the second half of 2021.
Open-cell panels are used in manufacturing television screens and are imported from China. The plan is to increase the import duty gradually to 10-12 percent over the next three years, sources told Moneycontrol. The customs duty currently is 5 percent.
In September 2019, after requests from television makers, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) announced that there would not be any customs duty on open-cell panels, provided manufacturers develop domestic manufacturing capacities in a year’s time.
TV manufacturers have been unable to set up local manufacturing capacities for panels so far. The Coronavirus outbreak and subsequent lockdown also hampered their plans.
“It will be a gradual increase every year. The idea is to nudge TV brands to manufacture these components locally. They have been given time since 2019 to build local capacities,” said an official.
This will be the third time in a row in 2021 that prices of TV sets will go up. Considering the increase in panel prices, TV prices went up in January and April.
Moneycontrol had reported earlier about the rise in prices of television sets by 10-30 percent from April 1 as all the Chinese panel manufacturers hiked their rates.