Sajjan Jindal, Chairman of JSW Group, has taken a sharp swipe at corporate captains raising concern over sudden punitive measures being planned by the Centre to discourage imports from China.
Last week, India went on an economic offensive against China, banning 59 of its mobile apps, taking serious exception to the Chinese expansionism.
"A lot of my friends and co-industrialists are upset as their business with China is important to maintain healthy margins and continuity. But this situation has come because of our complacency in blindly accepting cheaper imports from China rather than developing our own domestic vendors," said Jindal in a tweet on Monday.
Rajiv Bajaj, Managing Director, Bajaj Auto, last week said the company last year imported directly about ₹600 crore worth of components from China, which is 3-4 per cent of the material cost. The overall import bill from China including that of tier-I suppliers for Bajaj Auto could well be about ₹1,000 crore, he said.
The largest and number one import is that of alloy wheels that go into the motorcycle and this is not just for Bajaj, it is pretty much for the entire industry, he had remarked.
"What I mean by continuity is this, we have friends who are suppliers in China, who have invested a lot of time, effort and money in supplying us — not a vicious virus but some wonderful wheels, very reliably for years, maybe for the last 15 years if not longer. How do we suddenly let them down even if we could? Is that ethical, is that what we would like to stand for either as a company or as a country? We have to ask ourselves," he had said.
Jindal, however, said: "We cannot keep making money by buying cheaper Chinese raw materials for our business while our soldiers are getting killed at the LAC by them."
The JSW Group, which imports goods worth about $400 million from China, has decided to stop it completely over the next two years. Asking the industry to take this as an opportunity to come together and push for a stronger Atma Nirbhar Bharat, Jindal said domestic producers should be supported in achieving quality and scale besides show loyalty to Indian products.
"We have to support our armed forces and the government and prove that we stand with them in this fight against Chinese," he added.