“Confederation of All India Traders” appeals Govt. to hike duty on Chinese import of Aluminium utensils and Aluminium goods among others as festival season nears

As the Indian festive season is nearing, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has solicited support from the government to stop China participating in the Indian markets.

Particularly, the traders' body has shot a letter to Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal, pressuring him to increase customs duty on various articles imported from China, block alternate routes which can be used by China for pushing its exports to India, implement mandatory mentioning of the country of origin with each product sold on e-portal from 1^st September’20.

CAIT National President BC Bhartia & Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said: “The upcoming festival season which includes Diwali is unquestionably the largest most celebrated festival of India. Next four months beginning September are 'purchasing months' every year and therefore to reduce the consumption of Chinese goods and to raise the purchase of Indian goods the above steps are necessary to support vocal for local and Self-reliant India call of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In its letter to Commerce minister, CAIT proposed that a logical hike in import duty on the products like aluminium utensils, aluminium goods and other related sections of retail trade.

Additionally, CAIT stated that since the Govt. of India has taken several extraordinary and exemplary steps to restrict the participation of Chinese companies in several core sectors including infrastructure, Highways, Railways, etc. which is a distress bell for China.

"We apprehend that China may adopt another strategy of not exporting goods directly to India but can take the route via ASEAN and SAARC countries. Therefore, there is an urgent need to draw preventive steps to stop imports of Chinese goods into India from such routes"- said Bhartia & Khandelwal.