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some pc makers still WAITing for govt DECISION ON CVD

Budget Impact: PCs Get Cheaper PRACHI VERMA New Delhi  Courtesy this year’s Budget, the prices of desktops and notebooks have started falling down. Interestingly, the extent of fall is different across various segments. It has been maximum in case of companies importing computers like Dell and Hewlett-Packard (HP) that have reduced the prices up to 6 per cent. On the other hand, firms like PCS Industries and Zenith Computers - assembling machines in India - have offered only 2-4 per cent price cuts. However, there are some PC makers like HCL Infosystems, IBM and Acer that have not announced any price cuts so far. After Dell, HP has now slashed prices of its notebooks by 3-6 per cent across all categories. Dell has already announced 6 per cent cut in its PC prices. PCS also announced 4 per cent reduction in its prices across all its range on Thursday while Zenith has indicated only 2 per cent fall in the price of its computers. The companies that have not announced any price reduction, according to industry experts, are still awaiting government’s decision on the countervailing duty (CVD). In this year’s Budget, the excise duty on computers has been brough down to zero but CVD on components was left untouched at 16 per cent. The domestic hardware industry has been protesting against the unfair duty structure to the government. They are hoping a rollback of the Budget announcement on excise duty or at least a cut in CVD in line with the excise duty. “At the moment, we are not decreasing the prices of our desktops or laptops. We are waiting for the government to clarify on this. Only those players who are importing have benefited and have passed on the benefit to the consumers,” IBM India general manager X series servers Anil Sethi said. Acer India general manager S Rajenderan pointed out that the company will stick to the same prices for its products as there was no reduction on manufacturing/assembling costs. “Post-Budget, imported notebooks in our case, became less expensive and so we have passed on the benefit to the customers. This is not so in the case of desktops as we assemble/manufacture them in India,” HP India Personal Systems Group vice-president Ravi Swaminathan told eFE. HCL Infosystems, too, is awaiting a fresh announcement on duties. “We will wait for a few days and then announce the price change, if at all,” HCL Infosystems spokesperson said. Contrary to its 10 per cent price reduction announced post-Budget, Zenith has now revised its price decline downwards to only 2 per cent. “We were surprised to see the finer print as there was a CVD on the inputs so we revised the price decline to 2 per cent,” Zenith chairman and managing director Raj Saraf said. PCS Industries has announced that it will not await the result of the status quo maintained by the government on its Budget proposal for the hardware sector, and offer a 4 per cent reduction in cost across all its range of computers.

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