It is quite distressing that the spurious spares trade currently accounts for 36 per cent of the Rs. 330-billion Indian automotive aftermarket. Causing an annual employment loss of 1.15 million jobs and an additional consumption of 110 million litres of petrol and eight million litres of diesel, the use of counterfeit products results in a growing number of road accidents involving serious damage to vehicles as well as enormous loss of property and precious human lives. The global automotive sector is reportedly losing $12 billion to counterfeiting. The increasingly higher number of vehicles of different types and models plying on roads, though encouraging growthwise, spawns a ruthlessly menacing spurious spares industry. Products such as filters, spark plugs, bearings, pistons & piston rings, etc., are among products which are more prone to counterfeiting.
Till recently the trend among spares distributors was to give top priority to supplies to the OEM line, with less importance attached to the spares market. This was found to encourage the unorganised sector to supply counterfeit products with least restrictions. Now there has been a distinct shift in focus, and the Indian supply base caters to mounting spares demand through both the OEM channel and its own independent aftermarket channel. Further, with the geographical spread of dealerships and parts availability, it is hoped that spurious spares won’t get replaced into the vehicles. The other remedies suggested to end the menace are adequate scale of operations in serving a vast base of retailers with a rich enough basket of parts, quick service response to customer demand and smart warehousing as well as logistics infrastructure facilities to reach products to customers in time.
Of utmost significance in this context is the SIAM-ACMA joint strategy to tackle the spurious spares issue, which revolves round the ACMA White Paper brought out last year. The paper highlighted the various enactments under the existing legislative framework, with its special recommendations. The most notable among the enactments is the automobile industry demand for amending the Motor Vehicles Act that sets standards for components and parts for vehicles. Considering the magnitude of the problem, a solution will remain elusive unless a concerted drive by all the interests concerned is launched forthwith to check counterfeiting.