Import duty hike to hurt unorganised players

“Rise in import duty will surely impact players who were sourcing and importing large percentage of their LED lamp requirements. This will also impact the unorganised or unbranded segment which was importing cheap LED lamps and products from China,” Puneet Dhawan, Senior Vice President and Business Head, Lighting, Orient Electric, said. Dhawan claimed that his company has indigenised manufacturing of more than 95 per cent products and will have practically no impact due to the duty hike.

On Nov 15, the Finance Ministry increased the basic customs duty on a host of products: electronic items like mobile phones and televisions, to curb surging imports, making them more expensive, and also to give a boost to the ‘Make in India’ programme. A government notification said, the customs duty on mobile phones has been hiked to 15 pc, TV sets and microwaves to 20 pc, video cameras to 15 pc and LED lamps to 20 pc. 

Withdrawing the exemption of basic customs duty on LCD, LED and OLED panels, which are used in TV manufacture, the Centre has imposed a 7.5 pc duty. “Many temporary players in the market will suffer a setback. It will be a wash-out for them as it will be very difficult for them to survive without inputs,” said Riya Kabra, GM, Commercials,Truvison, which entered domestic market in 2016. He predicted that the prices will stabilise soon. 

Manmohan Ganesh, COO, BPL, said with the Centre’s support, the industry will mature with more manufacturers available for critical parts and will curb imports.