Bengaluru: With China blocking India's admission to the NSG and trying to prevent UN ban of Hafeez Saeed and Maulana Masood Azhar, the social networking sites were abuzz with calls to boycott Chinese goods, especially fire crackers during this Diwali. Apparently the boycott call now has many takers in the social media and also cheered the local industry. However, there are also reports of smuggling of these crackers.
India had last year banned the sale of imported Chinese firecrackers and issued a notice saying firecracker sellers should have a valid licence in order to regulate the market. Yet businessmen, who had imported firecrackers from China prior to the ban, had hoarded them and sold them illegally in Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Jaipur, Lucknow and Ahmedabad last year.
City based retailer Harish Babu of Cracker’s World said, “The sale and stocking of Chinese crackers is outlawed. All the people I know are licenced sellers of Indian crackers. But in some cases, like major shows, etc., Chinese crackers are sometimes sources illegally by organizers.”
The local industry in Tamil Nadu’s Sivakasi has taken a massive hit due to the smuggled Chinese crackers. An employee of Jubilant Fireworks based in Sivakasi, on condition of anonymity said, “It is nearly killing the local industry.” Stressing that smugglers were having a field day, he said, “It is very easy to source China-made crackers. You just need to know the right people.”
Senthil Rajan of Gopi Agencies, a premier seller of firecrackers in Sivakasi said, “Before the ban, the sale of Chinese firecrackers nearly brought the industry in Sivakasi to its knees. The industry is now recovering slowly. A lifting of the ban could sound the death-knell for India’s firecracker manufacturing industry.”
Some cracker manufacturers say they don’t have a clue about the illegal sale of firecrackers but caution that it could affect local businesses in the long run. Sundar Moorthy of Siva Firecrackers in Sivakasi says, “I don’t know much. But if these China-made firecrackers are made available even occasionally, it would affect our business big time.”
