FICCI CASCADE Seminar on Curbing Counterfeiting and Smuggling – An Imperative for Indian Economy, GUJARAT

09/10/2012 | Ahmedabad 

In the 4th consultation former Gujarat High Court Judge Hon’ble Justice D A Mehta emphasized on the meaning of counterfeiting according to Section 28 of the Indian Panel Code “A person is said to “counterfeit” who causes one thing to resemble another thing, intending by means of that resemblance to practice deception, or knowing it to be likely that deception will thereby be practiced”. He also observed that “Counterfeiters do not pay taxes which is a revenue loss for the government. Consequently, infrastructural spending in education, health and other sectors get reduced,” he observed.

Mr.Tobby Simon, President, Synergia Foundation discussed various researches and incidences related to counterfeiting. He also stated that counterfeiting and smuggling industry does not have any colour,it’s a global multibillion dollar industry. He mentioned that investigators have discovered that incomes from trading in fake cigarettes have been used to fund Al-Qaeda and the IRA. Mr. Simon stated that according to documents seized from Al-Qaeda camps, focus on counterfeiting operations as a means to replace revenues lost as a result of international counter terrorism efforts

Ms. Preeti Joshi, Member of Consumer Redressal District Forum, Gandhi nagar and Founder President, Consumer Affairs Research & Education Center put forth loss faced worldwide due to production of counterfeit products is 600 billion $ and also stated actions taken up by various economies in this direction. She mentioned that Homeland Security Force, US on 29th November,2012 shut 82 websites dealing with counterfeit products. She emphasized on the fact that grass root level needs to be targeted to clean up the economy.

Mr.Yashwant Shah, Editor, Jai Hind appealed to the media to wake up and show people the right path.He mentioned that the subject is very vast and we need to target the children and educate the masses to buy genuine products. He took an oath to take this message to the rural areas and fight against the menace.

Ms.Kavita Vijh, Commercial Specialist for IP, US Embassy highlighted various legal options – civil,criminal and administrative for the enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights. She presented various dimensions of IP crimes. IP Crimes lead to economic harm to rights holders, revenue loss to the states,consumer confusions, public health and safety etc. She further put forth her suggestions to combat counterfeiting by capacity building programmes, training and a strong IPR Enforcement Mechanism.

Experts also highlighted that price differences among neighbouring countries, tax arbitrage and ineffective control are a few reasons for this illicit trade. Thus the seminar ended with focus on growing link between counterfeiting, smuggling and crime. A disorder of this magnitude undermines economic development, a sound market economy system and open international trade and investment. No legitimate business and no country is immune to the impact of counterfeiters.

Therefore it calls for vigorous actions from all of us to counter the growing menace of counterfeiting and smuggling.