Expert Views: Consumer Durables Industry

Budget statement from Mr. Anirudh Dhoot - Director, Videocon & President CEAMA
[ Consumer Electronics and Appliances Manufacturers Association (CEAMA) is an all India body of organizations in Consumer Electronics and Durables sector that is currently Rs. 30,000 Crore Industry. ]

“The last quarter of 2011 was not favorable for consumer durables industry due to factors like Inflation, Petroleum prices & depreciation of Rupee against USD. Due to such reasons the consumer durables industry was forced to increase the prices ranging between 5 to 10%. In this budget we were expecting some relief from the Government in terms of taxation, infrastructure set up, reduce customs duty, encourage domestic manufacturing especially Set Top Boxes etc! However not all of it has happened."

"The increase of Excise duty & Service tax from 10% to 12 % will straight away affect the end consumer, right from lower middle class to upper class of the society. The customs duty on LCD/LED Panels, Mobile Phones parts has been removed & another 5 years extension for weighted deduction of 200% on R & D Expenditure for an in house facility are surely welcoming decisions, but this has been overshadowed by the Excise Duty hike. In the Indian consumer durables industry, majority of the products are still being manufactured in India; so the growth of durables industry would be a challenge".