KOTTAYAM: It will be ‘Rubber hartal’ in Kottayam on Wednesday.
The dawn-to-dusk hartal is staged by the Samyukta Karshaka Samara Samithy and supported by the LDF. UDF will take out a march to Rubber Board on Tuesday.
The fall in rubber price over the past few months has raised alarm bells among the farmers and dealers in the district.
Import of rubber without any restriction is been touted as the main reason for the fall in price.
Adding to this, adverse weather conditions this year and shortage of workers have also added to the woes of the farmers. The price of natural rubber in Kottayam market once had gone as high as Rs 248 per kg in April 2011. However, the price on Monday was Rs 159 per kg.
Now, with the Lok Sabha polls fast approaching, the political parties have come out raising the issue.
Meanwhile, Pius Scaria Pottamkulam, former president of Rubber Dealers Association said there is no point in staging a hartal. “The file regarding increasing the import duty of rubber is lying unattended in the Union finance ministry for the last eight months. Our leaders should try to pressurise the finance ministry,” he said.
The Union commerce ministry had decided on February 26 this year to change the cap of import duty on rubber from Rs 20 per kg to 20% of the price of rubber in the Indian market. This move had come as a relief to the rubber farmers here.
The decision was made based on a report by an expert panel appointed by the department of commerce under the direction of the Delhi high court in 2010.
According to the decision, the import duty will be 20% of the average price of Rubber (RSS4) in Kottayam market in the last three financial years. Based on this the import duty to be paid for a kg of imported rubber this year will be Rs 34 instead of Rs 20.
“From March to September this year 1,69,921 metric tonnes of rubber has been imported with a duty of just Rs 20 per kg. This period also happened to be a time when rupee faced a slump in the international market. The country has suffered heavy loss,” said Pottankulam.
P J Sebastian, a farmer in Mattakkara said that the dealers are shying away from buying and stocking rubber from farmers as the price is falling every day. “If the situation continues we will be force to end rubber plantation,” he said.
The dealers are also struggling to buy stock from the farmers. “Now we are forced to sell rubber at a rate less than the rate at which we have bought it from the farmers,” said a dealer.
The dealers had observed a one-day strike on September 28 demanding to hike the import duty. Demanding action to bring an end to the price fall of rubber, Kerala Congress (M) chairman andfinance minister K M Mani informed that the Parliament and Assembly members of the party and leaders of the farmer’s union of the party will stage a dharna in Delhi on November 15.
Source: India Times
