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To: Barry Grossman who wrote (69216)	11/30/1998 10:25:00 AM
From: Diamond Jim	Respond to of 186894

11/30 06:38 India's 1998/99 PC sales 1.2-1.5 mln --Intel By Sanjit Singh NEW DELHI, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Intel Corp <INTC.O> said on Monday it expected 1.2 million to 1.5 million personal computers to be sold in India in the 12 months to end March 1999. "We are forecasting sales of between 1.2 million and 1.5 million PCs," the microchip maker's director for South Asia Atul Vijaykar told Reuters by telephone. He said about 90 percent of all PCs sold in India had Intel chips. He said the figure could be at the upper end of the forecast if sales lived up to expectations in the last quarter of the financial year (January-March 1999). "Traditionally, one-third of all sales in a year happen in the last quarter of the year, due to the buying of large corporates. I expect a higher level of activity. We should sell roughly 50 percent more in the last quarter of this year than we did in the same quarter of last year," he said. India's Manufacturers' Association of Information Technology has forecast that annual PC sales will touch three million by 2000 compared with 800,000 in calendar 1997. Vijaykar said a key factor in spurring PC sales in the last quarter of 1998/99 was the resolution of a dispute between Indian customs and Intel on the classification of the U.S. firm's computer chips. Intel's Celeron and Pentium-II chips were being classified by customs as populated printed circuit boards (PPCBs) which are subject to a 22-percent import duty, rather than as central processing units (CPUs) which are subject to a duty of only five percent. Intel said both types of chips had PPCBs built into them, but their function was that of CPUs. The firm added that classification of its chips as PPCBs meant higher PC prices for consumers. "The government has issued a notification on Friday saying that both Celeron and Pentium-II chips would be charged import duty at five percent," Vijaykar said. "This takes away some of the uncertainties that have been clouding the industry...and will get customer demand up again." "About 40 percent of our sales come from the Celeron line and 60 percent from the Pentium-II family. The fastest-selling chip at present is the Pentium-II 350 MHz, which sells for about 12,000 rupees ($235)." He said the PC market was equally divided among international brands, local brands and non-branded or assembled machines. ($1 = 42.5 rupees) REUTERS SS JEC