Govt may tighten norms for TV imports

KOLKATA: The government is planning to put a restriction on the number of units which television companies can import to India in a year to boost local manufacturing, leading to a delay in granting import licenses to top brands such as Samsung, Sony, TCL and LG, two senior industry executives said. The ministry of electronics and IT (MeitY) has sent such a proposal on embargo of quantum of import per brand to Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) which is the import license issuing authority. The government has also sought last four year import data from the brands, executives said.Government officials have informed executives of the brands that it is planning to put restriction on the quantum which a brand can import to boost local manufacturing in the country as part of the Atmanirbhar Bharat programme, discourage imports from ASEAN countries through free trade agreement route, and from China with whom relations continue to be tense after border clashes since earlier this year.78029647As a result, over 40,000 units of new imported consignments of large screen televisions are currently stuck in the ports across all large brands, the executives said. The government had put television sets on the restricted list of imports for the first time in 20 years on July 30 whereby manufacturers will have to seek import licenses. The current inventory stuck is bleeding companies who have to pay higher demurrage charges and can severely impact their plans for the up-coming festive season which is the biggest shopping period in the country, executives said. While the bulk of the large company product portfolio is domestically manufactured, most of their premium 60-65 inch plus screen size TV sets which are priced above Rs 1-2 lakh are imported.Sony India managing director Sunil Nayyar said the company’s super large screen televisions are stuck in transition. “We have applied for the license and are hoping for an early resolution from the government side,” he said.A senior executive with a leading brand said the company had imported as on-going business hoping to receive the license. "We were informed it's restricted, but not banned. The government it seems is yet to formulate the full framework such as import quantum restrictions now thought of," he said.While most companies in early August had television inventory which got stuck in ports, they could eventually clear such shipments since those were shipped before the notification was issued. Emails sent to MeitY, DGFT, Samsung, LG and TCL did not elicit any response till publishing of this story. ET will update the story with the response, if any. The large screen imported sets accounts for just 5-6% of the Indian TV market by volume. But its value share is 15-18 % and is important for TV companies because they make higher margins on premium products. With people spending more time at home because of the pandemic, large screen TV sales had started picking up post lockdown after a gap of three years. But lack of supplies could mar the prospects of this segment.

from Economic Times https://bit.ly/3395a3m
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