'Why China, we are not afraid of any competition' - BP Rao, CMD, BHEL

Private power equipment providers have been complaining that they are losing out to cheaper competition from Chinese manufacturers. But B Prasada Rao, chairman and managing director of state-owned Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL), tells Kanika Datta it’s possible to counter the problem with better-performing products.

Last financial year, the Rs 34,050-crore engineering giant proved it could do so by bagging large private sector orders. Edited excerpts:

You have said you are not all that worried about competition from China. Why is this?
Ultimately, competition is competition, but it is also true that with China, we are not on a level playing field. There are two things when it comes to competition from China. One is that they have the advantage of their own state subsidies, the other is that our government must ensure that our domestic taxes and import duties do not favour foreign players over domestic players — and please note the words foreign players, not just Chinese. The argument from BHEL’s side has always been that we will demonstrate our competitiveness if you give us a level playing field. In fact, we have been demonstrating our competitiveness since the late seventies when international competitive bidding (ICB) was introduced, even before the entire economy was liberalised in the nineties.


ref:
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/%5Cwhy-china-wenot-afraidany-competition%5C/392597/