For those willing to purchase refrigerators, its prices are expected to go up in the near future, given the revision in norms of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, acronymed BEE, starting this year from Jan 1, 2023.
The new norm has not only tightened the labelling rules for refrigerators, it has also put a mandate on separate star labelling for freezers and refrigerator provisioning units, which is the storage part of a fridge, of frost-free models, stated a PTI report.
Leading refrigerator companies like Godrej Appliances, Panasonic and Haier believe that the new norms will pass on an increased price of 2-5% on end consumers. The rate will differ from one model to another.
The Business Head and Executive Vice President of Godrej Appliances, Kamal Nandi said to PTI on the new norm issue, “In every energy efficiency tightening, cost inputs go up a little bit to achieve those efficiencies through better insulation and around 2-3% price hike because of this will be happening, depending on various models and star ratings”.
He stated that the companies will now have to declare labelling for both, as per the revised norms and following the new changes. Also, as per the new labelling changes, companies will have to declare the net capacity of a refrigerator unit and not the gross capacity.
“For example, there are gaps between the door and shelves, which are not useable. So, those will not be considered,” Nandi added.
“Some of the compressors have to be reloaded or changed. Definitely, we are looking for a 2-4% price increase. The cost would be passed on to the consumers,” said the President of Haier Appliances India, Satish NS.
Similarly, on the redefinition of energy efficiency for refrigerators, Fumiyasu Fujimori, the Managing Director of Panasonic Marketing India said that with the revised BEE norms coming into effect, they expect an impact on the pricing of refrigerators to go up to 5%.
“We at Panasonic, are keeping a close eye on the development and will try to absorb maximum costs”.
