Image for representational purpose only. The Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) has said that the Parliamentary Standing Committee (PSC) headed by Dr. K Keshava Rao has recommended that the government of India should come out with Franchise Protection Act for auto dealers. This recommendation was part of suggestions made by the Standing Committee in its Report Number 303 titled ‘Downturn in Automobile Sector-Its Impact and Measures for Revival.’ Commenting on this, Vinkesh Gulati, president, FADA said, “I am grateful to the Standing Committee and specially the chairman, Dr. K Keshava Rao, for strongly recommending Franchisee Protection Act for auto dealers. India does not have a Franchisee Law at present due to which the OEM - dealer agreements are highly skewed towards manufacturers. This leads to a tussle in managing dealership operations in various ways, very short terms agreements, and non-existence of a clearly defined exit policy. Many developed countries like Mexico, Brazil, Spain, Albania, Russia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, Australia, Italy, Sweden, and Belgium now have such rules to protect the franchisee’s which started with USA introducing the same in 1980s.”