ACCORDING to a report of the Economic Times of India, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma has announced the increase after acknowledging what has been a “long-pending demand” of the Kerala government and its local cultivators for an import duty hike on rubber, which thus would be adjusted from Rs 20 to Rs 34 per kg considering the ‘volatility’ in the price of the commodity in the domestic market.
A proposal had been forwarded by the Commerce Ministry to the Finance Ministry, which would issue a notification soon, Sharma said.
Kerala is India’s largest producer of natural rubber, accounting for 90% of the total domestic production.
The decline in rubber prices affecting the domestic rubber growers is expected to be circumvented by increasing the import duty on rubber. They also raised the concerns on dumping of large quantity of imported rubber in the domestic market could further drag down rubber prices.
Rubber prices fell to about Rs 160 a kg from last year’s Rs 230 a kg, according to the report.