Small rubber farmers in Kerala have urged the government to take urgent steps to arrest the decline in rubber prices and implement the recommendation of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce, which had said that very high and disproportionate imports had affected rubber prices adversely.
National Federation of Rubber Producers Society president Suresh Koshy said the committee had clearly indicated that rubber imports should be restricted and imports during peak seasons should also be regulated.
He said the committee had expressed its concern over the steep decline in the price of natural rubber and had called for immediate intervention by government .
“It is a sad fact that even when the industry is in such deep crisis the government is yet to come out with concrete proposals,” he said.
Large scale imports of block rubber (TSR) from south-east Asian nations are depressing rubber prices, forcing rubber growers to discontinue production. Rubber imports this season ending October 2015 at 2.52 lakh metric tonnes equalled 76% of the quantum of rubber produced in the country. This percentage is growing year after year .This year’s production of natural rubber which may be anywhere between 6.0-6.5 lakh tonnes is the lowest in the last ten years and points to the distress in the sector, he said.
Mr. Koshy said that growers looked up to the Rubber Board for support and assistance, but it has been without a full-time chairman for a long time and has not been re-constituted, despite the fact that the committee had recommended this to be done within three months of the report being tabled in Parliament.
He said there had been delays in disbursement of replanting subsidy to growers though the support for replantings is only miniscule in the country compared to other rubber producing nations. The committee has recommended that importance be given to quality sheet production through strengthening group processing through rubber producers societies as also urgent steps to be taken to boost non- tyre sector through suitable policies.
The committee suggested that the Rubber Board should take all necessary initiatives to promote consumption of rubber wood by establishing rubber wood based industries and wood processors societies with support from the Government. Rubber timber should be considered as agricultural produce and all the rubber producing states will have to stop imposition of seignior age and other levies on rubber timber to make the industry competitive and viable, he said.
The committee had recommended that the Standard Import for Export Norms (SION) be revisited and validated. Inverted duty structure in case of latex goods industry should be addressed by suitably increasing import duty of finished products in line with the import duty of raw materials, it said.
Mr. Koshy said that the committee also suggested a technology upgradation fund with a corpus of Rs. 500 crore to be created for the non-tyre rubber industry to address the issues of technological upgradation in this sector.
He said free trade agreements entered into by India needed to be reviewed to prevent India becoming thedumping ground for cheap products which will kill the local industry.
Mr. Koshy said the time had come for the government to take some drastic action which may include a temporary cessation of imports as well as levy of higher duties on rubber imports to safeguard the rubber economy and preventing complete collapse of the sector.
