High time and right time for promotion, protection and projection of India’s goods and to fight against illicit trade

FICCI CASCADE (Committee Against Smuggling an Counterfeiting Activities Destroying the Economy) organized its 4th edition of International conference, MASCRADE-2017 in New Delhi today. The theme of this year’s conference was
Protect Your Brand Globally: Fight Counterfeiting, Smuggling and Piracy. The conference was organized with an aim to ensure that national and international stakeholders can dialogue with policy makers to identify opportunities for joint action between governments and the private sector to combat illicit cross border trade.
Inaugurating the conference, Mr. Shatrughan Sinha, Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, stated it was high time and the right time for promotion, protection and projection of India’s goods and to fight against smuggling, counterfeiting and illicit trade. He urged the stakeholders to take this agenda to the global platform and engage NRIs in the movement against illicit trade.
He added that FICCI CASCADE’s commitment and drive to curb smuggling and illicit trade was helping in creating awareness. Much more is needed to be done to change the general mind set with respect to the use of smuggled and illicit goods.Smuggling, specifically in India takes place in various forms- mis-declaration, undervaluation,misuse of end use and other means. The seizure value for mis-declaration of goods stood at INR1,187 crore in 2016, while that of undervaluation of goods stood at INR254 crore. The seizure value from misuse of end use was at INR2,780 crore, seeing a rise from INR953 crore in 2015, suggesting an increase of 190 per cent in 2016 from the previous year. Smuggling has
been a point of concern for Indian administration for past many decades, with narcotic drugs, gold and tobacco accounting for the major smuggled goods. As per the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), the value of seizures for gold and cigarettes in the year 2016-17 stood at INR435 crore and INR78 crore respectively. In a video message, Mr. Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu, Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Government of India, said that India was moving towards becoming a knowledge economy and this meant respecting and protecting the knowledge and intellectual property ofits creators.

He assured that the government was committed to this end, and had created vibrant regime to guard people against smuggling, counterfeiting and illicit trade. Mr. Anil Rajput, Chairman, FICCI CASCADE in his welcome address stated, Proceeds from Illicit trade are increasingly becoming the main source of terror funding. We need to understand this
relationship and work towards effective mechanisms to counter its worldwide impact. It’s a race against time as all of us are the stakeholders. The policymakers are steadily taking steps but the need of the hour is to seek bold and out of the box solutions. Highlighting the several initiatives undertaken by the Government of India to fight the menace of smuggling and counterfeiting, Mr. Pranab Kumar Das, Member, Customs, Central Board of  Excise and Customs, Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Government of India, said that there was a need to create ownership and build a relationship of trust between the government agencies and private sector and create a level-playing field for the stakeholders to curb tax evasion, black economy and revenue losses. He added that CBEC was a potent force ready to partner with FICCI and private sector to fight against illicit trade.
Mr. Sergey Kapinos, United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, Regional Representative, South Asia, in his address, said that smuggling and counterfeiting goods not only hamper the economic growth of the country but also adversely affect the social fabric and the well-being of its people. There was a need for framing robust policies and effective implementation to curtail this menace, he added.
To encourage and acknowledge the work of our law enforcement agencies FICCI CASCADE also felicitated the best performing officers for the period 2016-17 for their outstanding achievement prevention of counterfeiting & smuggling and enforcement of anti-smuggling & anti-counterfeiting laws from several Government agencies. The conference saw a host of notable international speakers from World Customs Organization (WCO), INTERPOL, United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Organization for Economic Corporation and Development (OECD), US Homeland Security and US Patents and Trademarks Office, Louis Vuitton, Beiersdorf, PUMA, etc. It was also addressed by notable
senior government officials such as Mr. Rajiv Aggarwal, Joint Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, GoI; Mr. D. P Dash, IRS, Director General, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence; Mr. Sushil Satpute, Director, DIPP, GoI; Mr. M M Oberoi, IPS, Jt. Commissioner of Police, Delhi Police etc.