FEBRUARY IS considered a ‘wait and watch’ month for a large number of citizens planning to shop for consumer electronics and automobiles after the Union Budget announcements.
The month of February also makes automotive dealers in particular try hard to get customers book a car or a commercial vehicle for delivery in March by offering a reasonably large discount or incentive to avoid any post-Budget surprises hitting sales badly if excise and customs duties go up for automobiles.
Similar is the case with the retailers of high value consumer electronics products in the city.
Already, car sales in all segments during February have taken a beating in the city. An exception are dealers who had offered huge discounts to avoid car sales from dipping drastically in February ahead of the Union Budget announcements.
“We could sell more Maruti cars in February on account of discounts offered by us on some models as high as of Rs 31,000”, RK Tandon, general manager (Sales), Anand Motors told HT Lucknow Live.
He said the automobile industry was expecting a Rs 1,000 cut in excise duty for automobiles in the Union Budget announcement on Tuesday. “March bookings for Maruti models are looking up as there is this strong belief among customers that excise duty cuts on cars is very much on cards in the Union Budget 2006-07 ”, Tandon said.
“PC sales get low during February in the city in anticipation of their getting cheaper after the Union Budget announcements. During this time of the year, customers want to wait a while before making a purchase decision. But we do expect sales to pick up briskly as usual during March this year,” KN Shukla, director of UPTEC Computer Consultancy Ltd, which owns the outlet Login, for premium brand IT products in the city.
{{/usCountry}}“PC sales get low during February in the city in anticipation of their getting cheaper after the Union Budget announcements. During this time of the year, customers want to wait a while before making a purchase decision. But we do expect sales to pick up briskly as usual during March this year,” KN Shukla, director of UPTEC Computer Consultancy Ltd, which owns the outlet Login, for premium brand IT products in the city.
{{/usCountry}}The latent demand for PC sales during February picks up during March every year, he added.
“The good news is that the rise in PC sales throughout last year had led to somewhat narrowing of the prices in the branded and assembled PC sales market in the city. We certainly hope that the branded PCs would start selling more in the coming months”, he said.
In consumer electronics, dealers are awaiting further lowering of the customs duties on imported television components to push up sales by Holi. There is a lot of anxiety over the announcement regarding excise duty on colour televisions, added a city dealer.