KARACHI, May 17: The falling rupee against the dollar and rising world prices of raw materials have pushed up the prices of locally made electronic and domestic appliances.

Dealers and assemblers now appear worried on decreasing presence of consumers in the market this year, especially during peak season making a negative impact on sales of some items.

They attribute the diminishing trend in sales of these goods to the phenomenal increase in food prices in the last one year and, especially since January 2008 coupled with recent increase in prices of these items.

They said buyers were now highly perturbed by the rising cost of living and “do not have surplus cash to buy extra and luxury items.

The consumers have already restricted their food purchases and cut down their consumption. It is then hard for them to think about purchasing domestic appliances electronic goods.

Besides, other factors of laggard sales this year have been political uncertainty and negative economic indicators despite the formation of a new government in February 2008, they said.

The price of one ton split AC (Dawlance) is now tagged at Rs22,800 as compared to Rs19,800, while LG split now sells at Rs22,900 as compared to Rs19,500.

The 1.5 ton Dawlance and LG split ACs are now available at Rs28,400 and Rs31,000 as compared to Rs23,500 and Rs28,500 earlier.

The price of washing machine has also surged by Rs800-1,200. A washing machine of Dawlance now sells at Rs6,000, which was earlier priced at Rs4,700. A big washing machine carries price tag of Rs11,000 as compared to Rs9,600. Prices of refrigerators have also surged by Rs1,000-2,000.

The deep freezer of Dawlance now sells at Rs22,200 as compared to Rs17,800 earlier, while Waves deep-freezer is available at Rs21,000 as compared to Rs17,500.

The rupee has lost its strength against the greenback by 11 per cent from January 2008 till now, thus making imports costlier.

The main inflation (consumer price index - CPI) has jumped to 18 per cent in April 2008 as compared to seven per cent in April 2007. Similarly, the food inflation, which was 9.4 per cent in April 2007, is now 25.5 per cent in April 2008.

Mohammad Rashid, a salesman at a domestic appliances shop in Saddar, said that the sales had been lower by 15-20 per cent this year despite peak sales season of split air-conditioners, refrigerators and deep freezers as compared to last year.

He said that split air-conditioner price had surged by Rs4,000-5,000 if the increase in last price was also included. The microwave oven has also become dearer by Rs800.

However, Mohammad Rizwan of Rizwan Electronics said that sales had been depressed by at least 50 per cent as compared with last year as buyers were turning up in very limited numbers.

Member Engineering Development Board (EDB) Shakeel Ahmed said that besides, domestic reasons one cannot ignore the impact of global factors on the local cost triggered by rising raw material prices like aluminum, plastic, copper and steel products.

He said that the overall sales of domestic appliances had been slow from March onwards. “People now prefer to have UPS rather than an split air-conditioner since the cost of living has increased,” he added.

Shakeel said that banks have also tightened their financing for purchase of electrical and electrical appliances. Besides, the mark up rate has also gone up.

Many customers, who had procured these items on installment basis, are now becoming defaulters, he added.

He urged the government to bring down the import duty on raw material to zero from the current five to 10 per cent so that the cost of production could be curtailed.

Pakistan Electronic Manufacturers Association chairman Sarfarazuddin said that sales had fallen by 10-20 per cent this year as compared with last year. Even the growth in the industry had also dropped by 20-30 per cent.