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GST Confusion May Hit India’s IT Peripherals Sales: IDC

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New Delhi: In the last one year, India’s Hardcopy Peripherals (HCP) market witnessed a significant technology shift, with customers showing an ever-increasing inclination towards ink tank printers over entry level laser printers. However, the next couple of months may prove challenging for channel partners owing to confusion in GST tax slab and this may impact sales of Inkjet, laser, SDM and line printers.

“The GST tax slab announcement, some confusion prevails as printers are listed in both 18 and 28 percent respectively. While the industry waits for clarification on the tax slab, channel partners have already started holding back on inventory stocking, which is likely to bring down the printer shipments in Q2,” said Nishant Bansal, Research Manager (IPDS), IDC India.

According to the latest IDC report, the market in India registered a 0.5 percent year-on-year (YoY) growth for the first time in six quarters after unit shipment reached 799,164 in Q1 2017. Post demonetization affected 2016 Q4, the printer market bounced back in 2017 Q1 with the inkjet market leading the way with a 15.4 percent growth YOY. .

The main reason behind this shift is the low cost of printing (starting from as low as 7 paise for black and white (B&W) and 18 paise for color printout) and in-box high page yield ink bottles available in the market. There was also a significant marketing push from vendors, which resulted in generating high visibility for ink tank printers.

In the overall HCP market, Epson overtook HP as market leader in terms of unit share for the first time ever after posting a 26.5 percent growth YoY. Epson captured 42.9% of the market while HP had 39.4 percent.

The market overall was robust with the top 3 vendors posting double-digit growth. HP and Canon posted 11 percent and 13.6 percent YoY growth, respectively.

Ink Tank Printers constitute the lion’s share in the Inkjet market which contributed to Epson’s capturing no.1 position in the category. “Demand from SMEs in smaller cities/towns and home consumers continued to be the driving force behind growth of Ink Tank Printers shipments in 2017Q1.” said Abhishek Mukherjee, Senior Market Analyst, IDC India.

Laser printer market suffered a decline of 10.2 percent in 2017Q1 compared to 2016Q1. Among the leading vendors, Canon managed to register a growth of 12.6 percent for the same period.
HP Inc. continues to be the market leader in laser HCP* with a share of 54.8 percent, followed by Canon and Samsung at the second and third position respectively.

Copier market saw a QoQ growth of 45.9 percent after a soft 2016Q4 with demonetization affecting the jobbers segment and low government spending. Kyocera shot up to the No.1 spot with a market share of 26.8 percent with a YOY growth of 22.8 percent.

“Laser printer based market continues to face challenges although in Q1 2017 they managed to narrow the shipment gap with inkjet printers quite significantly owing to some good government and corporate deals.” cautioned Manali De Bhaumik, Senior Market Analyst, IDC India.

A greater clarity on GST tax slab of these devices and channel enablement programs on GST awareness may reap a more positive results, believe experts.

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