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Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has suggested the auto industry not to import components unnecessarily if the exporting country is not giving equal access to Indian players. However, he said that companies can import quality products if those are not available or manufactured domestically.

Goyal also said that the government may have to look at the practices of some of the players in the sector who get dictated by their parent companies on sourcing and pricing of imports of components. He also said that there are certain companies who by choice prefer to import and there are certain firms who may not by themselves be importing and on record showing a greater degree of indigenisation. He said ‘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.’

The minister further said that the government may have to take retaliatory action against countries that do not allow access to Indian steel companies but are permitted to send the metal to India. He said the auto industry is still dependent for 20 per cent of its requirement on imports and this dependence varies across companies which shows that some of them are importing by choice. Further, he dismissed the contention of some of the global auto firms which say that they bring investments into India.