NEW DELHI, June 23: Adverse market sentiment has forced the foreign colour television (CTV) manufacturers to keep in abeyance their much-touted plans to hike prices. "Price hikes have been withheld for at least a month because the market sentiment right now is averse to a hike, especially after Videocon announced its lowering of MRPs to hail the swadeshi budget,'' president of the Consumer Electronics Manufacturers' Association, K S Raman, told PTI.The CTV manufacturers like Baron International (which markets the Akai brand of products with a high import content) were the first to announce Rs 500-1000 increase in the maximum retail price (MRP) of its televisions two days after the budget to pass on the hiked costs directly to the consumer. Korean company LG Electronics had also announced a similar hike effective from June 15, since the various schemes under its celebration offer were valid up to then.
"We are not going by the decision of other players in the market. Our hikes are definitely applicablefrom June 15,'' vice-president (marketing) of LG Electronics, Rajiv Karwal said.
But these hikes are yet to happen. The limelight, however, was stolen by the biggest player, Videocon, which announced a slash in colour television prices since it wanted the consumer to benefit from the protection being given to the domestic manufacturers.
Samsung and Sony as well as the domestic majority player BPL have so far shied away from talking at all about the prices of CTVs. While Sony is expected to announce its decision next week, Samsung as well as BPL are yet to take any "such" decision.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
