KARACHI: The price of split air conditioners has gone up by Rs1,500-3,000 as dealers blame assemblers for pushing up the rates while a Lahore-based manufacturer said the dealers are basically cashing on soaring demand instead of manufacturers.

Dealers in Hashoo Centre claimed that the manufacturers have pushed up the price by Rs 1,500-2,000 but some dealers in Aisha Manzil market said the price increase hovers between Rs 2,000-3,000 depending on the brands.

President Karachi Electronic Dealers Association (KEDA), Mohammad Rizwan Irfan said almost all the makers have pushed up prices by Rs 2,000 and not by the dealers.

The sale of split AC saw rapid jump in the last few days when the temperature hovered between 40-42 degree centigrade, he said anticipating high sale of cooling machines during Ramazan starting from third week of May.

Rizwan said so far the markets are flooded with huge stocks but future sales of May and July would much depend on heat intensity.

In 2015, the markets had faced severe shortage of split ACs either artificially created by the dealers or manufacturers as heat stroke claimed lives of dozens of people. Some greedy dealers had demanded premium of Rs 8,000-10,000 from the buyers on excuse of shortage of good and thin supply from the manufacturers.

A Lahore-based manufacturer said neither his company nor any other company had so far increased the prices in Karachi in the last four to five days. He said dealers had made a quick buck from the consumers who rushed towards the markets in the last four to five days due to increase in heat wave.

He expressed surprise that dealers charged extra prices from the consumers despite huge stocks available with them and frequent supplies from the local industry.

He said his company had actually decreased the prices of 1.5 tonne inverter AC by Rs 10,000 to Rs 69,000 in 2016. “Currently we have doubled our production now to meet surging demand in coming months,” he said terming April to July as the booming sale period of air conditioners.

The official said the market share of inverter AC has risen to 60 per cent out of total market which was 50-55 per cent last year.

Production of air conditioners has been showing positive growth despite power shortfall and longer duration of load shedding. In 2015-2016, production of air conditioners swelled to 388,509 units from 325,533 units in 2014-2015, up by 19 per cent. Production in 2013-2014 went up to 309,223 as compared to 278,480 in 2012-2013, showing 11pc jump.

According to figures of Large-Scale Manufacturing (LSM), production fell by 18 per cent in July-January 2016-17 to 109,097 units from 132,760 units in same period last fiscal due to thin demand in these months.

Published in Dawn, April 16th, 2017