With changes in excise duty, do you see people reducing their spending?

With changes in excise duty, do you see people reducing their spending?
The change is just 2% and was expected. Had it been 4%, it may have influenced spending. There is an upside to this budget, too. Income tax slabs have been reworked. The tax relief will leave a lot of people with more liquidity, particularly those earning up to Rs8 lakh. Their disposable income will go up by around Rs50,000. Service tax has not been touched either. Software prices are expected to fall. There will be marginal increase in prices due to fuel hike. But, overall, I don't think spending is going to reduce. It might actually increase.

Keeping last year’s recession in mind, how is the change in spending?
This year, consumers will have a very positive attitude towards spending,
especially due to the significant relief in income tax.

Which categories sell better?
In the work category, it is a very thin margin. All working people have a mobile phone. They work from wherever they can. Laptops and mobiles are fast moving. We recently sold more than 10,000 notebooks, which are the cheapest. At Croma, all mobiles over Rs5,000 sell very well.

Which of these products are fast moving – refrigerators, LCDs, washing machines, or ACs in the home category?
Consumers look at these products as necessities. With 18% inflation, storing leftover food saves money. In washing machines, there are many migrating from semi-automatic to automatic and automatic to front loading, which saves a lot of water.

Does this budget impact sales of these items?
Not at this stage. But, we will have to look into finer details.

Will you come up with any initiative to boost sales?
We will have to check with our partners. We cater to different customers. While some go for cash purchases, there are eight to 10% who look for EMIs. We will have to work out something for this
segment of consumers after discussing with our partners.

— Ajit Joshi, CEO, MD Infiniti Retail, which runs Croma