November 4 was a big day for PACT (Punjab Association of Computer Traders). The confederation body of 13 district associations of Punjab and Chandigarh, PACT had called for "Purchase Bandh" on this day, keeping in mind the interests and the concerns of IT trade in the region. The objective of the Bandh is to have a consensus among all the national association presidents to push the government to come up with an online policy. It also wishes to seek support at the national level to put pressure on vendors to come up with a concrete solution to curb the online price parity that still continue to persist.
The Bandh happened to open new frontiers of cooperation as 7 non-member cities joined the agitation to support the Association. PACT’s call for a Bandh is followed by similar agitations by Chennai (Confed-ITA) and associations from Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh. PACT remained in constant touch with the agitators and other North Indian associations so as to make it a success.
In an earlier meeting held in Ludhiana recently, PACT President and the Core Committee appreciated the initiative taken by HP and Dell in resolving the deadlock between PACT and vendors. During the meeting, it was agreed that the vendor companies should take initiatives and measures to control the differences in pricing between Online Portals and Partner Landing. The Partner landing should be lesser than the online pricing which will enable partners to compete with Online Portals.
The consensus was also for the constitution of proper teams to put a check on online sellers in the respective regions. The sellers selling at heavy discounts will be identified and heavy penalties are to be imposed. In some cases, it might also result in the termination of the defaulting partners. HP is also supposed to share the names of partners with the PACT President on whom the action has been taken for selling online on a weekly basis.
If vendors fail to take any concrete step in this direction, the next meeting will supposedly take place with the decision-makers and not with the local executives.
