NEW DELHI: In a strongly-worded message, commerce and industry minister
Piyush Goyal
on Tuesday suggested the
auto industry
not to
import components
unnecessarily if the exporting country is not giving equal access to Indian players.
He however said that companies can import quality products if those are not available or manufactured domestically. “Where things are being unnecessarily imported without India getting an equal opportunity in those countries I would be tempted….,” he said here at the annual convention of the
Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers
. He did not elaborate on these remarks.
Goyal also said that the government may have to look at the practices of some of the players in the sector which get dictated by their parent companies on sourcing and pricing of imports of components. He added that there are certain companies which by choice prefer to import and there are certain firms which may not by themselves be importing and on record showing a greater degree of indigenisation.
“But the moment, we go down one or two levels into their supply chain, we find them still dependent on imports. Often being dictated by their parent company from where these component suppliers would source, the pricing at which it will be sourced.
“I do not know how legal that is. But I personally think there is a question mark on transfer pricing in that, there is a question mark on fairplay… I would urge all the players of the auto industry to introspect on it,” he added. agencies
