NEW DELHI: The Indian consumer electronics makers are at loggerheads with key component producers, in the wake of spurt in imports of colour picture tubes (CPTs) into the country over the last few years. This follows a call for imposing an anti-dumping duty on CPTs by domestic CPT manufacturers.

However, this has not gone down well with Consumer Electronics and Appliances Manufacturers’ Association (Ceama) which incidentally represents the cause of both component suppliers as well as those making the final product.

According to Ceama, increased duty on imports would increase the overall cost of production and make local production of televisions less competitive in the global market. CPTs are a key component of colour televisions.

Currently, there are primarily two CPT manufacturers in India: Samtel Color and JCT Electronics. Both are reeling under heavy losses. While Samtel Color reported net loss of Rs 70 crore on net sales of Rs 1,185.8 crore for the fifteen month period ending June ’07, JCT Electronics recorded net loss of Rs 173 crore on net sales of Rs 290 crore during FY07. However, things are slowly improving with Samtel making a small profit for the quarter ending December while JCT Electronics cut its losses over the same period last financial year.

“The CPT makers have taken a monopolistic approach. When the country is talking about competing with the global market, the demand of CPT makers is just an excuse to hide inefficiency in productivity and quality,’’ said Ceama president Ravinder Zutshi who doubles up as the deputy MD of Samsung India Electronics.

The local CPT makers had first approached the ministry of commerce to take action against imports of CPTs into India six months back. “We brought the issue to the notice of the government and gave them data on heavy imports of cheap CPTs from China and other countries. The matter is presently under WTO’s judicial process,” said Samtel chairman Satish Kaura.

Currently, CPT imports which come from China, South Korea and Malaysia attract a peak duty of around 10%, which is almost similar to that of the import duty on televisions. Imports constitute about 45% of the total CPT demand in the country.

15 Mar, 2008, 0050 hrs IST,Pramugdha Mamgain, TNN

Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com