Strengthening of dollar, increase in transport costs and rise in the price of the product in the international market has led the price up in the domestic market. [break]
Traders say that within a week, new varieties and models of heaters will be available in the market but the customers will have to pay a little more compared to last year.
At Namaste Electronics, gas heaters which were earlier available for Rs 800 now costs Rs 1,000 while electric heaters which would come for Rs 1,500 have a going rate of Rs 1, 800. Similarly, gas heaters whose demand outstrips other models have become dearer by Rs 500 and is available in the range of Rs 8,000 to Rs 16,000.
Despite the increase in price and high demand, traders have not been able to introduce new models in the market.
“We have already placed orders for heaters with different countries and it will take a few days more for the latest models to hit the market,” said Ram Bakhati, sales executive of Jambo Electronics at New Road. Bakhati informed that people are already buying available old models as winter has arrived early this year.
Jambo Electronics has a huge collection of gas heaters available in the range of Rs 8,000 to Rs 16,000, electric heaters in the range of Rs 1,700 to Rs 4,500, and kerosene heaters in the range of Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500.
Though kerosene heaters are cheaper, traders say that these days demand for kerosene heaters is almost nil.
According to the traders, gas heaters are the most sought after as they are durable, has higher heating capacity and can be used even during load shedding.
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