The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), a trade organisation, encouraged traders to boycott Chinese products over the holiday season in order to cost China Rs 1 lakh crore in trade through the refusal of traders and importers to bring in festive and other goods. On the other hand, traders are anticipated to generate almost Rs 3 lakh crore in revenue during the festive season, which runs from Raksha Bandhan to Diwali.
According to reports, CAIT shared an official statement saying, “CAIT is actively working since 2020 on its boycott of Chinese products campaign across the country. Last year, China suffered a loss of festive business of about Rs 75 crores.” CAIT The representative body for traders will launch a campaign on September 1 to boycott Chinese goods.
According to BC Bhartia, National President of CAIT, and Praveen Khandelwal, Secretary General of CAIT, no orders for Diwali goods, firecrackers, or other comparable items have been placed with China by Indian traders or importers up to this point. Instead, they cited a recent survey conducted by CAIT Research & Trade Development Society, a research arm of CAIT, in 20 cities across different States.
CAIT said traders have a substantial stock of Indian goods to meet festive requirements.
Consumer durables, toys, consumer electronics, electrical appliances, kitchen articles and accessories, gift items, personal consumables, confectionary items, home furnishing, tapestry, utensils, footwear, watches, furniture and fixtures, garments, fashion apparels, cloth, home decoration goods, Diwali pooja goods including clay diyas, wall hangings, etc. are among the main sectors where Chinese goods have been replaced by Indian goods, according to CAIT.
Prior to the Holi celebration earlier this year, CAIT had predicted that dealers and retailers would do business to the tune of over Rs 25,000 crore, up almost 25% from the previous year’s revenues. There were no sales of Chinese products, as opposed to earlier when the import of Holi-related goods—primarily, colours, balloons, and toys—used to be worth over Rs 10,000 crore yearly. Around Rs 1,500 crore of business was projected to come from the sale of goods in Delhi alone.
Despite CAIT’s call for a boycott of Chinese products, more Chinese products were imported in the fiscal year 2022–2023. According to preliminary data from the ministry of commerce, while India’s exports to China fell by more than 28 per cent to USD 15.32 billion in 2022–23, its imports rose by 4.16 per cent to USD 98.51 billion during the previous fiscal year. The difference in trade between the two nations increased from USD 72.91 billion in 2021–2022 to USD 83.2 billion in FY23.
