The Indian Rubber Dealers Federation has sought to add provisions for ensuring a minimum support price (MSP) for natural rubber in the new Rubber (Promotion & Development) Bill 2022, which is a perennial demand for growers.
George Valy, president of the federation pointed out that the task force on rubber sector in 2018 had recommended the Ministry of Agriculture to examine the possibility of including natural rubber under MSP scheme as in the case of other industrial raw material such as cotton and jute.
As of now, 22 commodities are covered under the MSP scheme and Toria, sugarcane and de-husked coconut are covered under other price support scheme. Thus, 25 commodities are included in the MSP scheme and the prime responsibility of supporting natural rubber sector rests with the government, he added.
The federation also suggested the government to include natural rubber as an agriculture product in the new Bill considering the repeated demand from stakeholders including growers and dealers. The status of natural rubber as an agricultural product had been challenged in court cases related to SARFESI Act.
Hence the new legislation may be taken as an opportunity to legally establish that natural rubber as it is obtained from the plantations and its primary processed forms an agriculture product. The federation urged the government to add a new section in the Bill for the status of natural rubber as an agriculture product.
Rubber Board composition
Referring to the composition of Rubber Board, the federation welcomed the initiative to revive the structure of the Board by including dealers and processors after repeated demand for a long time. In the original Act, there was no representation to them, he said.
Rubber imports
On the import of rubber and rubber compounds, the federation said such imports should be brought under the purview of Rubber Board for issuance of no-objection certificate (NOC) and clearing of the same from Indian ports.
This will also help to ensure that there is no duty evasion in any form done by importers to circumvent the 25 per cent import duty on natural rubber by wrongly categorising imports under a HSN code with lower duty compared to natural rubber.