New Delhi: Prices of LED Televisions are set to increase even more from April as the expense of open-cell panels has increased in the global markets by approximately 35 per cent in the previous one month.Brands including Panasonic, Haier and Thomson are considering to increase costs from April this year, while some like LG have actually already raised rates due to trek in prices of open-cell.

Panasonic India and South Asia President and CEO Manish Sharma stated, Panel prices are increasing continually therefore are the prices of Televisions.

It is most likely that TV costs may increase further by April.

When being asked about the quantum on boost, he said, Seeing current patterns, it may increase 5-7 per cent more by April.

Expressing similarly, Haier Appliances India President Eric Braganza stated there is no other method than to increase the costs.

The rates of open-cell have actually gone up tremendously and the patterns are that it would keep increasing, stated Braganza adding that if that continues, we would have to continually increase prices .

The open-cell panel is a fundamental part of TELEVISION manufacturing and covers around 60 per cent of the unit.Companies import tv panels in an open-cell state, which need further putting together with worth addition prior to being shipped to market for sale.Super Plastronics Pvt Ltd (SPPL), the brand licensee for French Electronic devices brand Thomson and US-based brand Kodak, said there is a shortage of open cell in the market and the prices have nearly increased by three-folds in the previous 8 months.

From the previous eight months, there has actually been a month-on-month increase in panel rates, we have seen more than 350 per cent spike in LED TELEVISION panels.

Worldwide, panel market has actually decreased.

Regardless of that, there has been an increase of 35 percent in the previous 30 days, stated SPPL Chief Executive Officer Avneet Singh Marwah.

He added that the per-unit expense of TVs would increase by a minimum of Rs 2,000-3,000 beginning with April.Videotex International, which owns Daiwa and Shinco brand names, said the industry has never seen or expected such a rate boost of open-cell.

Since 32 inch is the most-sold size in India, the cost of a 32-inch screen size is expected to go up by Rs 5,000-6,000, said Videotex International Group Director Arjun Bajaaj.While South Korean brand name LG said it will not increase the costs of its TV panels.

We are not going for any rate boost now for TELEVISION.

We have actually already increased the prices by around 7-4 percent in January and 3 per cent in February, due to the fact that of the hike in panel rates, stated LG Electronics India Vice-President (Home Appliances) Vijay Babu.

Marwah added that the open-cell market is dominated by Chinese makers and alleged that TELEVISION makers from China are getting better rates from them.

Presently, there is no alternative apart from China where all panel manufacturers exist.

It has been closely observed that only Chinese brand names are getting better supply and price.

This has actually been the story particularly after the pandemic, where Chinese TELEVISION brand names, which have actually been flooded in the Indian market to counter Indian manufacture brand names by much better price and supply, he added.

The government should bring TV manufacturing under the production-linked reward (PLI) scheme, a relocation which will make the Indian TELEVISION industry more competitive on the international phase, Marwah added.Last year, the federal government had brought back the import task on open cell.

It had actually re-imposed 5 per cent custom-mades duty on the import of open-cell for TVs from October 1, 2020, after having nil responsibility for a year.Besides, the government had also put imports of TELEVISION under a limited classification from totally free to promote domestic production.

Now, importer of TV needs to look for a licence from the commerce ministry's DGFT for the imports.

TELEVISION is among the largest sections under the entire domain of home appliance and customer electronics, accounting for a volume of nearly 17 million with a projected sale value of nearly Rs 25,000 crore.According to a joint report by the industry body, CEAMA and Frost - Sullivan, the TELEVISION market is anticipated to grow to 284 lakh units in 2024-25 from 175 lakh units in 2018-19.

It even more stated that the open cell panel and the chips of the TELEVISION are mainly imported from China besides some other markets as Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam and just the last-mile assembly is performed in India.