Counterfeiting of auto components in India is a growing threat.

The Indian auto components sector has grown significantly over the years, with its revenues increasing 11% to INR 2340 billion in FY 2014-15. Even though the genuine auto components market has witnessed a healthy progress and the overall market looks good, the counterfeit market has also been on a rise and has grown parallel, raising serious concerns about vehicle safety.

Counterfeit parts are 20-30% cheaper than genuine parts.

Counterfeit parts pose as a grave threat to a vehicle’s performance, but more importantly they jeopardize the vehicle safety, consequently endangering lives. It is common knowledge that they are about 20-30% cheaper than genuine parts, and therefore easily pushed into the market.

The use of counterfeit parts could be held responsible for about 20% of all the road accidents in India, which directly or indirectly tends to hurt brand value of the car manufacturers.

As stated by Automotive Component Manufacturers Association (ACMA), valuation of counterfeit auto components accounts for around 30-40% of the overall after-market for components in retail outlets. The counterfeit parts also result in enormous losses for the government as nearly none of them come within India’s tax framework, and several billions are lost every year in tax revenues.