Interrupted, they stand!

The national level Association of UPS Manufacturers, formed two years ago
seems to be going nowhere these days. Talk to a couple of people in the trade
and the dismal picture they paint of the association is not funny. Blame it on
the nonchalant nature of the members, or the fact that the leadership is not
able to devote adequate time, or that this segment has no
standardization, so the players can probably never agree on the same thing. The bottom line is that a majority of the people are not satisfied with what the
association has done.

The current president of the association Sanjay Aggarwal, who is also the
director of Quasar Systems Pvt. Ltd., is proposing to have elections next month.
This would be the first election since the association’s inception. "It
is high time that we had elections in the association. New people bring in new
ideas and change; and change is always better for any organization. I am pushing
hard to have elections next month." However, he himself will not be a
candidate.

An established manufacturer, who didn't want to be named, was not even aware
of the existence of the UPS association. Said he, "I didn't know there was
an association. It had occurred to me that there should be an association and I
was going to take the initiative, but somehow it did not work out." Another
well-known manufacturer had this to say about the association, "File not
found!"

One of the reasons for the inactivity of the association as quoted by a
manufacturer is the lack of standardization in the industry. "On the one
hand, there is a person in Nehru Place who is selling a 1 KVA UPS at Rs 8,000,
whereas the same UPS from an established and well-known company will be
available for Rs 15,000. Now how can these two segments of people ever agree on
anything? While the first one would want the taxes to be high, so that he has an
advantage, the latter would obviously want lower taxes."

Another manufacturer, who on conditions of anonymity said, "The UPS
manufacturers segment is a small scale industry, where no one has time for
things like this. The idea of an association is good, but the members need to be
active, attend meetings, raise issues and then take the time out to fight for
them. But, there is just one meeting where and a couple of people turn up."

One of the major issues plaguing the industry is the fact that UPS is not
considered an IT product. Currently, the sales tax on UPS is 12 percent, as
against four per cent for IT products. The excise duty on UPS systems is 16 per
cent. Everyone is complaining against this anomaly, yet there has been no
representation to the state or central governments.

Datex Electronics Ltd. director Sameer Mathur said, "On one hand, the
government wants to give a boost to IT. It wants to create a cyber state out of
Delhi. On the other hand, they expect computers to run on the kind of poor
electricity they supply and don't even try and make the UPS affordable."

Elent marketing manager Capt. Satish Mahajan points out that 90 per cent of the UPS systems are used for running computers. "In spite of this it, is not treated as an IT product. There are other states who have included UPS in the IT category, why should we be different?"

Just for comparison sake, the situation is no different in the Delhi Computer
Traders Association, where members are dissatisfied with the leadership. Such a
scenario actually makes one wonder whether these small associations are actually
needed. Shouldn't there be an umbrella association under which these
segment-specific or market-specific associations can operate? But, who is going
to take the initiative? If the industry cannot come together or agree with each
other even in small forums, what will happen if there is a large, national level
body?

Mathur has the answer: "We don't need to form a larger association. It
is already there. What are MAIT and NASSCOM for? We can become a part of these
larger associations." He further points out that these associations are
more accessible to the government and more influential also. "Ours is a
small association. What can we do alone? No one will listen to us." Mathur
had spoken to MAIT about two years ago on this issue. However, he is yet to get
a response from them. MAIT director Vinnie Mehta was out of station and hence
not available for comment.