Sale of counterfeit products in sectors like spices, watch components, medicinal and cosmetic products, automotive, vegetable oils and ghee will go up to Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion) by the end of March 2006 from the official estimated loss of Rs 900 crore (Rs 9 billion).
The chamber in its paper 'counterfeit, fake, spurious and contraband products' has estimated that the automotive sector has been the worst hit with losses exceeding Rs 4,000 crore (Rs 40 billion) followed by the watch industry in which the market size of fake parts shot to 65 per cent during April-November 2005.
"The feedback received from member automotive companies reveals that approximately Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion) of counterfeit automotive parts were sold off as of March 2004 which shot up by another Rs 1,000 crore by March 2005, the market size of which grew over 36 to 38 per cent," Assocham president Anil K Agarwal said.
The watch industry too has not been spared owing to the rapid growth of the unorganised sector and has suffered losses over Rs 4,000 crore, he said.
The sale of fake cosmetic products too was on the rise owing to the ignorance and general tendency of the people to buy low-priced products, it said. Annually, the cosmetic and medicinal areas have borne losses worth Rs 2,500 crore (rs 25 billion).
Other areas where use of fake products is on the rise include vegetable oils, spices, ghee wherein the annual losses have crossed Rs 3,000 crore (Rs 30 billion).