The economic fallout of spread of COVID-19 has its impact even in distant composite Adilabad and surrounding areas this summer as the import of cheaper air cooler components from China got suspended. The price of assembled air coolers is set to shoot up by 20 % to 50 %, which will only burden the lower middle class.
“While the forecast of an unusually hot summer ahead was scary enough, matters got a little worse thanks to the rise in cost of air coolers,” lamented Sarsan Pradeep, a customer who came to purchase a piece at a shop selling the assembled product. “The price will rise further as the season progresses,” warned the shopkeeper in an apparent bid to sell the air cooler to the customer.
“We buy the exhaust fan motor and the water pump made with Chinese components from New Delhi,” revealed Md. Tajuddin, the wholesaler of air coolers running the biggest workshop in Adilabad town. The unit manufactures about 20,000 pieces during the season. “The price of the motor has gone up from ₹ 420 to ₹ 580 and that of the water pump has jumped up from ₹ 68 to ₹ 90,” he pointed out.
“It is but logical that there will be an increase in the price of the air cooler. We, however, have not increased the price as yet,” he hastily added. “The current wholesale price of a 2 ft (measured by height of the cooler frame) cooler is ₹ 1,250 and that of the 4 ft variety is ₹ 3,900,” he disclosed to drive home the point that the prices have not shot up as yet.
Md. Tajuddin, who supplies air coolers to places like Karimnagar, Nizamabad and even Hyderabad, sources the components like tin sheets, grass for stuffing the cooling sheets etc from Nagpur. Even the workers including assemblers and painters are from Nagpur.
The only good news for the common man is that there would be sufficient water to be used in the guzzlers that the air coolers are due to a good monsoon. The largest of these use at least 60 litres of water during a single night.
