According to the federation of pesticides manufacturers' association president, S Parthasarathy, all the regional bodies are coming together to form a national body to highlight these differences and put them before the government to set it right.

He said that the SSI pesticide producers delegation is proposed to meet the finance minister on July 13, 1998, with a request to either totally exempt pesticide formulations from excise duty or create level playing field by imposing uniform excise duty on technical grade pesticides as well as pesticides formulations.

During 1994, pesticides were brought under the excise law and a duty of 10 per cent was charged on both technicals and formulations, which was reduced to 8 per cent in the 1997-98 budget. However, in October 1997the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) classified technical grade pesticides as chemical and decided to charge a duty of 18 per cent, while continuing the formulations with 8 per cent duty.This has resulted in a disadvantage to the SSI formulators, while the technical grade pesticide producers have started formulating taking advantage of Modvat, according to association vice-president Ashok Kumar Desu.

According to him, while the SSI producer has to pay 18 per cent on purchase of technicals, the technical producer need not pay any duty since he is formulating the pesticide under the same roof.