The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Drive against fake auto components intensifies

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 06, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Drive against fake auto components intensifies

By N. Ravi Kumar

CHENNAI, DEC. 5. The drive by manufacturers of auto components against fake products is moving into top gear.

Hit hard by the menace that affects the sale of genuine products, poses safety risks and pollution hazards, the manufacturers are laying greater emphasis on consumer education.

Apart from creating awareness about the benefits of using genuine products, they are introducing security features on their products to differentiate between the duplicate and the original. Top-of-the-line manufacturers are setting the trend and other companies may soon follow suit.

Fake products account for about 30 per cent of the spare parts market, which is estimated at a whopping Rs.4,500 crores, according to sources in the Confederation of Indian Industry.

The space devoted by many participants at Auto Serv — 2004, to create awareness about the menace, indicates the extent of the problem.

Auto Serv — 2004, is a CII exhibition on automobile care, maintenance, service, spare parts and garage equipment, which opened here yesterday.

Uniform colour code

The Motor Industries Co. Limited , a Bosch group firm manufacturing a range of auto components, including diesel filter and overhaul kit, has introduced a uniform colour code for its packaging material.

On its diesel filter packs, it uses a combination of security measures, including holograms whose hidden images can be seen only when ultra-violet rays are passed and special seals with letters that can be read using a `reader', made available to the dealers, says V.K. Bedi, the Deputy General Manager (Marketing).

The CII sources say that the use of duplicate products, which cost at least 30 per cent less than the original, reduces the vehicle's efficiency, leads to more wear and tear, and adds to the maintenance cost.

With the enforcement mechanism proving to be weak, the manufacturers, especially leading players such as Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland, are holding consumer and trade education campaigns.

Both the companies are displaying the original and the duplicate products, at their stalls. An executive at the Tata Motors stall said the company regularly conducts meetings with retailers and mechanics to create awareness and has created a wide network of authorised service centres.

According to an executive from Ashok Leyland, the cost of litigation against fake manufacturers was a deterrent and creating awareness through such exhibitions was an attractive option.

`FTAs help MNCs'

Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) help multinationals rather than the national interest as evident from the experience of the Indian automobile components industry with respect to the India-Thailand FTA, according to the Chairman of Auto Serv — 2004, L.Ganesh.

Talking to mediapersons, Mr. Ganesh said that MNCs with resources to set up huge capacities in a most economic production base chosen by them, would be facilitated by FTAs in marketing their products in countries covered by FTAs, providing for special concessional duties. It would be better for India to lower import duties in general, including on inputs, to enable its industries to become competitive in the world market, instead of entering into FTAs which "subsidise" producers abroad, he added.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu