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Regional
Meeting at Kolkata In keeping with the policy of rotating meetings at various places in the country, FADA organised a Regional Meeting at Kolkata on 18th March 2006 at Bengal Club, Kolkata, coinciding with its Council Meeting. The meeting witnessed an overwhelming participation of automobile dealers from Kolkata and other places in West Bengal. Distinguished guests at the meeting included: Sumantra Chowdhury, lAS, Principal Secretary, Govt of West Bengal; S N Sarkar, IPS, Additional Commissioner of Police, Govt of West Bengal; Amitava Roy, Commercial Business Head (East), Maruti Udyog; Jalaj Gupta, Regional Manager (East) - PCD, Tata Motors; and Ashim Bhowmick, Regional Manager (East), Hyundai Motor India. The day began with a welcome address by Om Prakash Agarwal, Chairman, Motor Industry Association, Kolkata and State Chairman, West Bengal, FADA. Binod Agarwal, President, FADA adding his words of welcome, briefed the distinguished guests and participants on the history, role and activities of FADA. Touching upon the current automotive scenario and salient features of the recent Budget, President welcomed the excise duty cut in respect of small passenger cars and hoped that excise duty on all passenger cars across the board would be rationalised at 16% at par with other categories of vehicles. An Interactive Session with the Principal Secretary (Transport) and Additional Commissioner of Police, Government of West Bengal and an Open House Session with a panel comprising representatives of Maruti Udyog Limited, Tata Motors Limited and Hyundai Motor India Limited following thereafter, witnessed a lively discussion on various issues of concern to retail automobile trade. Sumantra Chowdhury in his address highlighted the steps taken by the West Bengal Government to ease the traffic congestion, including construction of a number of flyovers and improvement of roads. Referring to the issues specific to automobile sector, he said that the Supreme Court having cleared the decks, the West Bengal was in the process of finalising agencies for introduction of High Security Registration Plates (HSRP). He added that the West Bengal was the first state to introduce Smart Card for registration of vehicles, and assured that name of financier in whose favour a vehicle was hypothecated would be reflected in the Smart Card if it did not appear already. He also spelt out the other measures being contemplated by the West Bengal Government to improve the vehicular traffic, road safety and environment pollution in the city of Kolkata, chiefly-
Principal Secretary (Transport) agreed to consider after the elections in West Bengal, the suggestions for (i) Delegation of registration of non-transport vehicles to automobile dealers based on the schemes in vogue in Delhi and Rajasthan; (ii) Authorising automobile dealers having the requisite equipment and technical competence to carry out the inspection and to issue the fitness certificate in respect of transport vehicles; and (iii) Constitution of a committee at the State or city level, composed of the transport officials and other stakeholders including automobile dealers, to address and sort out the day-to-day issues and problems of mutual concern. S N Sarkar, Additional Commissioner of Police, while interacting with the participants, pointed out the growing complexities of policing the city of Kolkata, including managing the vehicular traffic. He said that road to surface ratio in Kolkata is just 6%. Unlike New Delhi and other modern cities, Kolkata is not a planned city and does not have space for road addition. As such, fast-moving and slow-moving vehicles jostle for a limited road space. Kolkata traffic police was therefore working for bringing about improvement in vehicular traffic through better traffic management and engineering, he added. The Open House Session with three panellists - Amitava Roy, Jalaj Gupta and Ashim Bhowmick, representing manufacturers, was marked by intense and absorbing deliberations. Major issues raised during the interaction included: Shrinking sale margins of automobile dealers; Dealer Retention & Satisfaction; and Workshop revenue not matching up to the vehicle sales & population due to improving quality standards of vehicles and their components as well as consumables like lube oil. The panelists assured that the manufacturers were equally concerned about the viability and financial health of their dealers. Most of the manufacturers reviewed the business plans of their dealers from time to time. They expressed the view that while, at times, there are compelling reasons for the manufacturers to offer discounts and freebies, it is the better understanding among dealers, which will help bring about discipline in the market place and rein in discounts. Pradip Kamdar, Vice President, FADA proposed a Vote of Thanks for the distinguished guests and participants for their making it convenient to attend the meeting. In the afternoon, immediately after lunch, FADA Council held its 227th meeting at the same venue. Among various matters considered, the Council reviewed the outcome of Auto Summit 2006. The progress of recent initiatives of FADA, viz. (i) 'Helpline Service' for members, and (ii) Pilot Project under which the certificate/diploma courses have been started by FADA in association with Ind Search at Pune to cater to the manpower needs of automobile dealerships, was also reviewed. Keeping in view that these initiatives aim at helping and benefiting the automobile dealers immensely, Council decided to go ahead and expand these programmes. It was decided to the launch the training courses at Mumbai from July 2006 and thereafter at other places in the country gradually. Members were requested to look out for suitable institutions in their areas for tie-up with FADA for the phased launch of courses across the country. |
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