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New Delhi: Chinese
manufacturers are increasingly "faking" popular Indian products of
consumer goods giants such as Dabur and ITC, undermining the
legitimacy of brands and causing losses worth as much as $5
billion annually, officials said.
"A lot of counterfeit Dabur products are made in China. We have
conducted at least 20 raids in China but no proper action has been
taken by the Chinese," said Ashok Jain, general manager of finance
at Dabur India, the country's fourth largest FMCG firm.
He said such fake products manufactured in China with
"Made-in-India" tag are supplied across the world, mostly in India
and African countries.
"It causes huge damage to the brand. Those fake products are
obviously not up to our standards and supplied at very low
prices," Jain told IANS.
Dabur, which has nearly $4 billion market capitalisation, operates
in key consumer product categories like healthcare, skin care,
hair care and oral care. The company's revenue last fiscal was
$910 million.
Pradeep Dixit, a senior official of ITC, a $33-billion
conglomerate, said the popular FMCG brands of the company were
counterfeited by unscrupulous firms and supplied in domestic as
well as foreign markets.
"Our popular cigarette brand is faked and supplied widely in the
states like Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh," he said.
"China is a big problem everybody is facing," said S.K. Goel,
chairman of the Central Board of Excise and Customs, told IANS.
Goel said the big international brands like Nokia, Adidas, Reebok
and Nivea were also widely counterfeited in China and supplied in
India and other parts of the world.
Chinese manufacturers are also faking drugs, endangering lives of
patients. Fake drugs, carrying "Made in India" tags, supplied from
China were recently detained in Nigeria and other African
countries.
K.K. Vyas, Delhi's deputy commissioner of police (crime), said the
police have seized and confiscated a lot of fake and counterfeited
products of popular brands in the national capital recently.
Vyas emphasised on the need for enhancing punishment for
unscrupulous manufacturers and importers. "Punishment needs to be
enhanced. Also there is need that judiciary addresses these issues
quickly."
"Counterfeiting is a big menace. It is hurting everybody -
consumers, industry and the exchequer," said Anil Rajput, chairman
of the anti-smuggling and anti-counterfeiting committee of
Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
Recently, FICCI formed a panel called "FICCI-Cascade" that expands
into a committee on anti-smuggling and counterfeiting activities
destroying the economy. Chaired by Rajput, the committee is
working closely with the government to curb this menace.
According to a report by think tank Indiaforensic Research
Foundation, the total loss to the economy annually due to crimes
such as counterfeiting, commercial fraud, smuggling, drug
trafficking, bank fraud, tax evasion and graft is estimated at
Rs.22,528 crore.
(Gyanendra Kumar Keshri can be contacted at gyanendra.k@ians.in
and biz@ians.in)
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