Assam dealers raged with state government's IT policy

Kolkata: The state government of Assam has left the channel community in the state irate with it's policy of making direct OEM and vendor purchases.

Recently, headed by Assam Electronics Development Corporation Ltd (AMTRON), about 17,400 desktops were donated by the state government; in a bid to award the students securing first division in the HSLC and High Madrasa examinations since 2005 under the Anundoram Borooah Award Scheme.

Bhasker Kalita of BMG Informatics alleged that the channel community has been carefully sidelined in the entire process as AMTRON has been inviting direct bids from the OEMs like Acer, Wipro and HCL for the past four years. Furthermore, dealers in Guwahati alleged the local IT Association has been incompetent and has failed to address the issue at the government or the OEM level.

As e-governance projects has started gaining momentum across the state, the government is issuing tenders on a regular basis and is keen on distributing computers across the student community. Last year, AMTRON distributed 12,400 PCs and now, with the numbers rising to about 30,000, IT resellers are sceptical of losing retail business in the state. As a counter-measure to the move, many small-scale resellers in Guwahati, Dimapur and Dibrugarh are opting for introducing lucrative maintenance schemes and dealing in accessories rather than focus on PC retailing. Resellers across the state feel that since the student community accounts for a large portion of the customers, free distribution of PCs to them has resulted in shrinkage of the market.

"Assam is now growing in the field of IT with the government stressing on IT education and infrastructure. However, unlike other states, the channel has been left out of this progress. The government has built a separate body, AMCRON to issue IT tenders and has imposed a huge EMD amounting to Rs 50 lakhs while bidding in the tenders ensuring that no channel player is able to bid in the process", said Surendra Kumar Choraria frustrated with the government's policy.

"The channel is hence left with no other choice except catering to the SMB and SOHO segment. The tea-gardens comprise the bulk of the business and now, with the government distributing free computers to home users, the market has been direly affected", he added expressing his grief over the government policy.

Assuring of taking up the issue with a serious tone, North East Computer Traders' Association (NECTA) will be deliberating on this issue on Mar 10, the day when NECTA will be holding it's official AGM .

Read the full story in The DQ Week March 9 issue.