Colour TV prices set to go up

"The prices of colour television are set to go up due to imposing of anti-dumping duty," Consumer Electronic Appliances Manufacturer Association (CEAMA) President R Zutsi told PTI.     

Zutshi, who is also the Deputy Managing Director of Samsung India, said the impact would differ depending on the size of colour televisions.     

"It could be as high as 12 per cent for a 21- inch colour television, while it could be 22 per cent in case of CTV set of 29-inche," he said.     

Korean rival LG Electronics is already planning an increase in prices.     

"We are increasing the price of colour television sets by around 3-4 per cent from August 1 to pass on some burden to consumers," LG Electronics Business Group Head, Consumer Electronics, Amitabh Tiwari said.     

He said the anti-dumping duty imposed is very steep and would impact production costs.     

"For every increase of Rs 800 in raw material cost, the end price of the product will go up by around Rs 1,450. Thus import duty of such magnitude would definitely have adverse impact on the prices of CTVs," Tiwari added.     

The government had imposed anti-dumping duty on imported colour picture tubes from countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea and China. The duty ranges between Rs 878 and Rs 4,369 depending on the size of screen.