Rajkot: The Morbi clock manufacturing units that had diversified into the production of mosquito racquets under the Atmanirbhar Bharat programme of the Central government, are demanding level playing field against the made in China rackets which have monopoly in Indian markets.
The units that started manufacturing of mosquito racquets two months ago in a bid to give competition to Chinese counterparts are also demanding imposition of minimum import duty on racquets from China.
The makers are facing tough competition in the retail market in terms of pricing as the Chinese mosquito racquets are sold at Rs 160-180 per piece, while those manufactured in Morbi cost Rs 200-225 per piece.
Currently, there are three units which are manufacturing nearly 2.5 lakh pieces per month. Seven more units are in the process of starting commercial production soon.
India’s mosquito racquets requirement is 25 lakh pieces per month out of which only 2% is manufactured locally, the rest 98% are imported from China.
Clock major Oreva Group currently manufactures one lakh pieces per month. Talking to TOI, Oreva Group managing director Jaysukh Patel said, “There is under-invoicing of racquets imported from Chinese so we are facing tough competition in the retail market. We are in talks with commerce ministry to fix minimum import price for this racket or impose safeguard duty to curb the import.”
Sagar Sutrairya, who is manufacturing 30,000 rackets per month said, “We use ABS plastic material in the manufacturing the racquets. But the price of this material has increased by over 100% in last few months. As a result production cost also has gone up.”
Bharat Rachchh, another manufacturer in Morbi, who has just started production of racquets said “There is tough competition from China in terms of pricing. But our product is of better quality. We only want the government to stop under-invoicing of Chinese products and provide us with a level playing field.”