NEW DELHI: In a bid to encourage local manufacturing and assembling, the Centre has imposed restrictions on imports of fully-built colour television sets.
The curbs, however, are unlikely to impact prices but it is expected to benefit local contract manufacturers, attract investments in component production and better assembly lines, say industry executives.
Officials also say that the move would fuel the country’s dream of becoming a manufacturing hub for TVs and a competitive partner to the world economy.
“This step is definitely in the right direction and will help in creating a global hub, which we want to be and it also helps to create a strong ecosystem for manufacturing of the products,” said Sunil Vachani, chairman, Dixon Technologies.
The homegrown company manufacturers TV for the likes of Samsung, Xiaomi at its local factories. This will also help control the “flood of import” of TV sets in the short term and the industry will be self-reliant with the required scale and will compete with global markets, he added.
TV is one of the larger segments under the entire domain of Appliance and Consumer Electronics accounting to a volume of almost 16-17 crore with an estimated sale value of about Rs 25,000 crore.
Shipments worth Rs 7,000 crore come from countries like China, Thailand and Vietnam. Official data shows that as much as USD 781 million worth of TVs were imported in 2019-20.
Of this, USD 428 million was from Vietnam and USD 293 million was from China.
According to Kamal Nandi, President, Consumer Electronics and Appliances Manufacturers Association, the move will attract more investments in technology and manufacturing which will lead to creation of more jobs.
“CEAMA is closely working with the government to formulate and facilitate both phased manufacturing and end-to-end TV manufacturing in India. Various representations around the benefits of such a plan have also been submitted,” Nandi said.
Industry officials say the decision will impact business of companies such as Vu and China’s TCL.
For established brands like Samsung, Sony, LG and even relatively newer entrant Xiaomi, however, the restrictions are likely to affect import of some premium models even as a large of their products are either locally made and sourced.
“Currently, over 85 per cent of our Mi TVs sold in India are manufactured in India. We believe that this decision will encourage and give a boost to local manufacturing," a Xiaomi India spokesperson said.
According to a notification from the commerce ministry's Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), as colour TVs are put under the “restricted” list, importers will now need to apply for a license to import certain categories of TVs.
“The curbs are imposed on TV sets of screen size ranging from up to 36 cm to over 105 cm. Liquid crystal display (LCD) television sets of screen size below 63 cm are also covered under the restrictions,” it wrote in a note.
Avneet Singh Marwah, CEO, Super Plastronics -- the exclusive brand licensee of Thomson and Kodak range of TVs in India -- pointed out that more needs to be done to make India a fully self-reliant manufacturer. “We need to have a complete ecosystem of value addition such as manufacturing plants for components and display panels.”
Consumers would also get better quality assembled TV sets now, says Arjun Bajaaj, CEO and Founder of homegrown Daiwa.
“Most of the products that came from China in the form of completely built units were standardised products.The latest decision would remove unfettered imports and boost local production,” he said.