Indo-China Tension Leads To Shortage In Electronic Goods & Appliances; Prices Increase

Bhubaneswar: The border dispute with China has adversely affected the consumer electronics market in India. Both retailers and consumers have complained of the lack of availability of many appliances and electronic goods in the market.

According to a TOI report, around 90 per cent of IT goods including printers, laptops and even pen drives are imported from China. The tightening at Customs and looming uncertainty over boycotting Chinese products have led to shortages as well as an increase in prices.

There are rumours about the government increasing taxes on imports or even banning certain products which have led to traders not building up inventory in the country.

Prices of some laptops have reportedly increased by Rs 4,000 to Rs 5,000 and that of pen drives by up to Rs 100.

A simple search on Amazon and Flipkart will reveal that many such products are out of stock.

The situation is equally grim with consumer appliances such as televisions, washing machines, dishwashers, etc.

“Prices of small 24 inch TVs have increased by Rs 1,000,” said Umasankar Misra, a trader in Cuttack. “Supplies are constrained and the situation is uncertain,” he added.

Certain appliances like dishwashers, which are predominantly imported, are almost completely out of stock, said an employee of Reliance Digital in Patia, Bhubaneswar. “We have zero pieces of Bosch, LG dishwashers. We have just a couple of pieces of a single model from IFB.”

While a majority (95 per cent) of consumer products are manufactured or assembled in India, components-wise there is a dependency of 25-70 per cent on China depending on the product, according to Consumer Electronics and Appliances Manufacturers Association (CEAMA).

Some models of mobile phones are also in short supply. “We had ordered 50 pieces of Realme 5i and a few other brands, but we received just five,” said a mobile store owner in Saheed Nagar. Talking about the anti-China sentiment effect, he dismissed it by explaining that he sold three phones in the last 30 minutes, all of which were Chinese-owned.