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.
