The halving of import duty on a key component of TV panel to up to 5 percent came as a big relief for the manufacturers. Industry players believe that this duty reduction will not only boost domestic production but will also pave the way for more investments in the coming days.
In the Union Budget 2018, finance minister Arun Jaitely imposed 10 percent duty on imported open cell TV panel. Because of sudden hike in import duty from 0 to 10 percent, companies like Samsung and Pansonic hiked prices of TV by up to 6 percent. But with the recent cut down in import duty open cell from 10 percent to 5 percent has given a new lease of life to the TV makers. The industry welcomed this decision of the government with open arms and hoping that this move will give a boost to ‘Make in India’ initiative of the government and will also encourage affordability of TV.
To take the insight of the industry we reached out to some leading LED TV makers and asked them to share their thoughts in this regard.
“We are pleased with the GoI’s announcement of revising the BCD duty to 5 percent. This brings back the emphasis on GoI’s “Make in India” vision which will drive the momentum and develop new capacities for TVs within India. Going forward, the Consumer electronics industry can look forward to a developed manufacturing ecosystem whilst creating job opportunities.”
–Manish Sharma, President & CEO, Panasonic India and South-Asia
“Though 5 percent on the open cell will encourage the demand to push manufacturing in 
India, such as the installation of more Clean Rooms for Panel Assembly and more Final Assembly lines in India, the manufacturing duty is still not justified; to the reason that no company manufacturers open cell in India, yet. In fact, mere 7 companies across the world manufacture open cell. However, those companies have no plans of setting up a plant in India. So, in order to encourage the Indian TV industry, there is a major call for Open CELL FAB to manufacture open cell in India. Only then this duty should be valid to promote the local purchase of open cell when the TVs are genuinely Real Make In India TV. Meanwhile, currently, the open cell is still imported from either China or Korea which accounts for 80% of the TV built and cost. The reduction of customs duty over importing products and components from foreign nations, by the government has enabled several brands to improve the technical aspects, considering the curtailing of customs duty by 5 percent.”
–Arjuun Bajaj, CEO and founder of Daiwa
” This decision has come as a breather for the LED TV Industry.This reflects the governments vision and strong emphasis on Make In India.This will further impact the manufacturing ecosystem and will provide more job opportunities for skilled and unskilled workers.We as a company will try to absorb this duty to boost the demand.This will help the brands like us to develop our strong foothold in manufacturing industry and establish as a long term.”
– Saurabh Kabra, Director – Business Operations India, Truvison
“We welcome the move as the government has taken corrective measure on its budget announcement. This will bring back focus on Make in India and correct the anomalies of inverted duty structure that has been hurting domestic manufacturing capacity building and thereby our competitiveness. It will encourage localisation, setting up of a components ecosystem in India and will give a boost to plans for local manufacturing. In lieu of the reduction in duty and our focus on consumers, we will re-visit our pricing strategy for the upcoming LED TV models as we aim to offer our products at the best affordable price.”
– Nidhi Markanday, Director, Intex Technologies
–By Shruti Mishra
