The Indian Rubber Growers’ Association has asked the Centre to temporarily suspend rubber imports considering the fall in prices.

When prices fell in 1999, the Government stopped imports under advance licence through a notification. A similar situation has arisen now and the Government should act accordingly till prices improve, Sibi J. Monippally, President of the Association, said.

In a memorandum submitted to the Commerce Ministry, he urged the Government to increase the import duty on rubber to 40 per cent beyond the domestic requirement and restrict imports to end-users only. He said in 2013-14 imports were to the tune of 3 lakh tonnes against 2.14 lakh tonnes in the previous year.

The production and consumption of rubber is almost balanced, with production at 9.3 lakh tonnes and consumption at 10 lakh tonnes. The requirement by 2020 will be 15 lakh tonnes. To achieve this goal, he suggested sustainable production with the support of farmers.

The Government should facilitate mandatory use of rubberised bitumen to encourage domestic production. However, the cost of rubber production has gone up and farmers are not able to continue cultivation at existing prices, he added.

The sector is significant to the economy, especially for Kerala and the North-East. About 12 lakh of growers are directly involved in the rubber sector and one crore people indirectly involved in related activities, he said.

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