SINGAPOREANS are splurging on the latest technology gadgets ahead of the goods and services tax (GST) increase and this has sent the cash registers at the PC Show ringing to a record high.

As at yesterday afternoon, sales at the IT trade fair totalled nearly $17.5 million. Last year, the show raked in a grand total of $20 million but organiser Lines Exposition and Management remains confident of bettering its previous result.

Consumers are scrambling for last-minute deals and exhibitors are likely to slash prices towards the tail end of the show and these factors will help fuel sales, a company spokesman explained.

Over 750,000 visitors had thronged the Suntec Convention Centre show floor over the last four days, snapping up laptops, desktops, digital cameras, digital music players, printers and other computer peripherals. On the first day alone, more than 150,000 consumers had flocked through the gates and spent over $2 million on new gadgets.

The annual mega IT Bazaar is now into its 17th year. It relocated from Singapore Expo to the Suntec Convention Centre for the first time in 2006, a move which the firm said had helped to drive up sales and visitor numbers. The onset of the June school holidays, as well as the rush to beat the two-percentage-point GST hike come July 1, were other reasons for the improved performance, according to exhibitors BizIT spoke to.

'We certainly expect to see a significant improvement in overall sales figures at the PC Show as we have an exciting promotional product line-up this year for TVs, portable gadgets, LCD monitors and printers,' said Ng Long Shyang, Samsung's vice-president of sales and marketing for telecommunications and IT solutions. The Korean electronics behemoth has doubled its sales target for printers at this year's PC Show and it is also eyeing a 20 per cent increase in LCD monitor revenue.

Likewise, printing and imaging giant Canon is also expecting a bountiful harvest. The company is out in full force to promote its range of printers and initial figures indicate that sales are likely to be 10-15 per cent higher than last year, said Andrew Koh, director and general manager for Canon Singapore's consumer imaging and information division.

While consumers have traditionally been buying inkjet printers for their homes, sales for Canon's all-in-one laser printers have been particularly brisk this year, he said, a trend that is attributed largely to the declining prices of such products.

Other major exhibitors this year also include Acer, Epson, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Sony and Toshiba.

This article first appeared in BT on June 04, 2007