Government Action Required On Spurious Imports: CICU President

Ludhiana, Jan 3 (KNN) Chamber of Industrial and Commercial Undertaking (CICU), comprising industrialists and traders, on Tuesday urged the Union Government to establish a high-level committee to counter the import of counterfeit and undervalued products.

The industry body highlighted the significant challenges arising from under-invoiced products and counterfeit parts, particularly in sectors such as textiles, garments, auto parts, Electric Vehicle (EV) parts, and more.

Upkar Singh Ahuja, President of CICU, asserted that spurious and undervalued products are primarily manufactured by Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the country, reported TOI.

"Even products with registered brands and intellectual property registration are being imported by India, whereas the Indian Customs department fails to curb the same," he stated.

He mentioned that the bilateral trade between India and China has quadrupled in the past decade. However, the increasing imports and declining exports are a major concern.

He highlighted the under-pricing of products, as evidenced by recent raids conducted by the Anti-Smuggling Directorate of Revenue Intelligence on major Chinese mobile phone manufacturers, revealing instances of concealed income and tax avoidance.

"This raises a question mark on the transparency in the trade between some Chinese and Indian companies," added Ahuja.

The CICU President penned a letter to the Prime Minister's Office, Finance Minister, and MSME Minister, urging the establishment of a high-level committee in this regard.

In the letter, he highlighted the tool of imposing entry dumping duty as a means to dissuade exporting countries from dumping products below fair market value.

The objective of the anti-dumping duty is to safeguard the domestic industry from unfair competition.

However, the MSME industry faces challenges in collecting the necessary information and data to file probe requests with the Government of India for such dumping.

(KNN Bureau)