Automobile dealers' body the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) on Tuesday urged Heavy Industry Minister Dr Mahendra Nath Pandey to frame exit rules for Auto Manufacturers citing the reason for India exit of world top auto manufacturing company General Motors.
Talking toon the sidelines of FADA's 3rd Auto Retail Conclave on the theme Thriving Through Disruption, FADA President Vikesh Gulati said, "The United States has franchise protection act, the United Kingdom has its own code of conduct, Australia has its own auto dealer code, but in India, we have no such code or regulation, there is only one company exit clause, that's it." So the FADA wanted the heavy ministry to set up a process like western countries have regulations to protect the right of their consumers and dealers.
Citing the latest example of US automobile company General Motors (GM), Gulati said, "GM is the latest example, which is one of the top two manufacturers in the world of cars, but in India, they exited overnight. So there are some lakhs of GM cars and their customer can't have the service. We raised this problem to the Ministry of Transport, Prime Minister and Heavy Industry Ministry as well. We were able to put some pressure on such companies where they allowed the dealers to at least service another two years to the customer. So that was a small victory for us, which set up a plan for the future."
FADA President said that this similar thing has happened with UM Lohia, MAN Truck and Bus, Harley Davidson, whereas Harley then supported and has come back again to hero but there was a blank for two years when the customers were not happy because of that. If the company exits overnight from India and its services is not available it becomes scrap. So we urge the minister to protect the right of the consumers, compensate the dealer who has invested all the money in the company face and commitment to the future. We are again meeting the minister next month with a plan we are expecting something to happen in this.
( With inputs from ANI )
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