The All India Tyre Dealers’ Federation (AITDF) is seeking the help of the government to lower tyre prices as the cost of raw material falls continuously.
This is to help the rubber growers of the state as the natural rubber price had fallen to Rs 115/kg from the earlier peak price of Rs 242/kg during 2009.
The chief minister and finance minister of Kerala, where rubber is grown, met with domestic tyre manufacturers on December 19 and convinced the tyre industry to pay Rs 131/kg for natural rubber to growers against the current market price of Rs 115/kg.
“When the price of natural rubber shot up to Rs 242/kg during 2009-10 and price of some of other raw materials too moved up during this period, the domestic tyre manufacturers increased the tyre prices steeply for various categories of tyres by 17% – 22% as there hardly existed any serious competition among key tyre majors in the country,” the latest report by AITDF said.