PC sales surge by 41 per cent

New Delhi, Jan 22: Fuelled by the growth in Internet, desktop personal computer market is set to cross the 1.45-million mark by the end of...

New Delhi, Jan 22: Fuelled by the growth in Internet, desktop personal computer market is set to cross the 1.45-million mark by the end of March, marking a 41 per cent growth over the previous year.

PC sales crossed 6.63 lakh units mark in the six-month period ended September 1999, marking a 45 per cent rise over the same period last year.However, as much as 57 per cent of this growth has come from the unbranded, unorganised assembled PC segment, up from 48 per cent share in the same period last year, according to half-yearly user survey conducted by Indian Market Research Bureau on behalf of the Manufacturers Association of Information Technology.

8220;We estimate the unorganised market to be around Rs 250 crore, which is a complete revenue loss to the Government exchequer. They do not pay customs duties, excise or the sales tax, under invoice and evade duty fully which puts the branded products at an obvious cost disadvantage. This, if not checked by the government through policy measures, will kill the price sensitive PC industry,8221; said MAIT director Vinnie Mehta.

A MAIT delegation recently met the infotech minister Pramod Mahajan and requested him to expedite the implementation of second report of the national IT task force.

Multinational brands like Compaq, Hewlett-Packard and IBM were the biggest losers with their share falling from 29 per cent to 22 per cent in the same period. Established Indian brands also lost two percentage points and comprised 21 per cent of the total as against 23 per cent in first half of the previous year.

PC shipments to the business segment grew by 42 per cent as against an impressive 58 per cent growth in the households. The sales were most impressive in the small business segment those with under 10 employees the PC penetration grew by 57 per cent over the same period last year, thus accounting for one-fourth of all PC sales in H1 1999-2000.

8220;Internet is driving the PC, server and modem sales, but the PC penetration in the country is nowhere near that achieved by the other countries. By end of the year, it will be around 4.5 PCs per 1000 people as against 15 per 100 people in the US,8221; pointed out Mehta.

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Demanding reduction in excise duty on all IT and electronic products from the existing 16 per cent to 8 per cent, Mehta said the abolition of special additional duty was a must to make manufacturing competitive in the domestic market.

As per the survey, printer shipments registered an 18 per cent growth. The monopoly of DOT matrix printer, which accounted for 55 per cent of all printer sales in 1996-97, would end this year with the share falling to 40 per cent.

The share of inkjet printers has grown from 35 per cent to 50 per cent during the same period.