Impact of Rupee Depreciation: Prices Likely to Rise in 2026

New Delhi: Television prices are likely to increase from the new year. Industry sources say that a shortage of memory chips and the fall in the rupee’s value in the forex market are the main reasons. While chip shortages have already pushed up component costs, the weakening rupee is further increasing TV manufacturing expenses. In this scenario, TV prices are expected to rise by around 3 to 4 percent from January 2026. Recently, the rupee crossed the 90 mark against the US dollar for the first time. Since key components used in TV manufacturing such as open cells, semiconductor chips, and motherboards are imported, import costs have gone up. In addition, strong demand for high-bandwidth memory chips used in AI servers has led to a significant rise in prices of all types of memory chips. As a result, LED TV prices may increase by up to 3 percent, said NS Satish, President of Haier Appliances India.

Meanwhile, some TV manufacturers have already informed dealers about the possibility of price hikes. Super Plastronics Private Limited, which manufactures TVs under license for brands such as Thomson and Kodak, said that memory chip prices have increased by nearly 500 percent over the past three years. Due to this, TV prices could rise by 7 to 10 percent, said the company’s CEO Avneet Singh Marwah. He warned that chip prices may continue to rise over the next two quarters, and if that happens, further price increases would be unavoidable. Videotex, which works as an original design manufacturer (ODM) for several TV brands in addition to its own brand Daiwa, also stated that the availability of memory chips would be a major challenge.

At the sourcing level, prices of flash memory and DDR4 chips have increased by nearly 1,000 percent, mainly due to their supply being diverted to AI data centers, said Videotex Director Arjun Bajaj. He noted that this situation could continue until the second quarter of next year, after which chip manufacturing conditions may improve slightly. The depreciation of the rupee has further complicated the situation by increasing import costs. Bajaj added that once existing inventory is exhausted, the impact of these factors will gradually become visible to consumers in the coming weeks.