FICCI CASCADE Organises Awareness Rally About Illicit Trade and Impact on Economy

FICCI Committee Against Smuggling and Counterfeiting Destroying the Economy (CASCADE) on Saturday organised an awareness rally against illicit trade and smuggling of counterfeit products that have a negative impact on India's economy.

According to the 2022 FICCI CASCADE study, there has been a significant rise in the illicit trade market across critical industries such as FMCG-packaged foods, FMCG-household and personal goods, alcoholic beverages and tobacco products.

The rise in size of illicit trade market can be gauged from the fact that in the 2010-2020 period, the FMCG packaged foods segment in particular witnessed an alarming rise of nearly 600 per cent when the market grew from Rs 20,378 crore in 2010 to Rs 1,42,284 crore in 2020, FICCI CASCADE said in a statement.

Flagging off the auto rally for awareness, Praveen Khandelwal, Member of Parliament, said, smuggling has a crippling effect on our economy and many illicit players use funding from those sources to boost terror funding.

"I also request FICCI to conduct awareness drives of this nature in every state and I will exhort the retailer community to participate wholeheartedly in these initiatives. I will also engage in discussion with the FICCI CASCADE team to see how we can move towards eradicating this menace," he said.

Smuggling activities not only have a debilitating impact on the economy in the form of job losses and revenue leakages, but they also have implications on national safety and security, FICCI CASCADE Chairman Anil Rajput said.

"Sometimes, illicit players use smuggling as a route to enter Indian markets, we should ensure that smuggled goods do not infiltrate our markets," Rajput said.

There is an urgent need to combat illicit trade and safeguard India's economic interests, the statement said.