Ficci moots separate EPC for auto industry

Industry body Federation of Indian chambers of commerce & industry (Ficci) has said there should be a separate export promotion council for the country's automotive sector, which would work with a mission of achieving 5 per cent share of India in global automotive trade by identifying the true potential for exports of various categories of automotive products from India. 

Currently, India's share in global automotive trade is only 0.5 per cent, which is much lower than that of many other developing countries like Brazil, Mexico, China, Thailand. This share has not increased much since 2000, when India’s share was 0.2 per cent in global automotive trade, Ficci pointed out.

India’s automotive exports stood at $5.8 billion in 2007 compared to $55 billion for China, $44 billion for Mexico, $18.2 billion for Turkey, $14.6 billion for Thailand and $19.5 billion for Brazil in 2007, Ficci said.

Ficci further said that Indian automotive industry needs to diversify its destinations of exports for which this Council would be instrumental. Currently, India does not export significant amount of automotive items to some of the major importing countries like Australia, Canada, Russia and Saudi Arabia, noted Ficci.