Centre has no plan to consider industry’s demand to lower import duty on rubber
₹30/kg, whichever is higher," Singh said. “We are requesting a duty cut to protect the small industries in India, and the inverted duty structure needs to be urgently addressed," the AIRIA president said. Explaining the need for restructuring the inverted duty, Singh said, “When we import raw material, the industry must pay more duty.
Meanwhile, the duty on the import of finished products is just 10%. This huge gap is creating a significant problem for the domestic industry." However, a senior government official said, “The key objective of the government is to protect the interests of our farmers. For that, the government has increased the financial package for the rubber sector by 23% to ₹708.69 crore from ₹576.41 crore for the next two years." The incentive will enhance natural rubber production and productivity and reduce import dependency in the future.
The funds will be used for supporting the plantation of rubber, generation of planting material, productivity enhancement, formation of rubber producers' societies, and rubber research and training. The production of natural rubber would be increased through expanding planted area, accelerating rubber plantation development programmes in non-traditional regions, including the Northeast. Under the scheme, planting materials worth ₹50,000 per hectare will be supplied to rubber growers by the Rubber Board.
And this assistance will be in addition to the ongoing plantation being carried out in 200,000 hectares under the Indian Natural Rubber Organisation for Assisted Development (INROAD) project in the Northeast. Queries sent to commerce secretary and commerce ministry spokesperson remained unanswered till press time. Milestone Alert!
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