Some excerpts:

How would you describe the state of the plantations industry vis-a-vis the government policies?

The plantation industry is going through a strange phase. Despite the fact that the Parliament has declared tea, rubber, coffee and cardamom as `industries', the state governments continue to treat them as agriculture. So planters are in a fix. The result is that we are neither getting the full benefit of an industry nor agriculture.

Land and forest policies are not conducive to thehorizontal growth of plantations. On labour wage front, the state governments do not take into account the economic truism of affordability of the plantation.

I would say that the liberalisation policy has not percolated down to the state governments under whose purview come the policies on land, labour and taxation.

What according to you are the issues hampering the growth of the plantations industry? During your tenure as the president, Upasi has been voicing a lot of concern over the prevailing taxation rates? Please elaborate.

The plantations industry has not got advantage of reforms in the farm sector or that of the industrial sector. Whereas, the farm sector is totally exempted from income tax, the plantations continues to be heavily taxed. We are not advocating for a complete relief from income tax as is done for the farm sector. What we are asking for is that the plantations industry should also be taxed in the same way as other manufacturing industries.

Despite the fact that thecentral income tax rate, as charged from the manufacturing industries, is 35 per cent plus the temporary surcharge of 10 per cent, the agriculture income tax rate fixed by the state governments are destructively high going upto 65 per cent.

An attitudinal change is called for from the state governments. In respect of union government, while we do appreciate the policies of globalisation under the WTO umbrella, our plea is that there should be no over-liberalisation like freezing of imports or making it duty free in respect of the plantation sector that is land based and on which over one million growers and two million workers are dependent.

The issues are complex and I cannot claim that during my tenure miracles happened. UPASI, has been taking up and pursuing the issues with the southern state governments. The agricultural income tax, which was 65 per cent, has sometime back been brought down to 60 per cent in Kerala and 50 per cent in Karnataka. However, in Tamil Nadu, it continues to be 65 per cent.Our efforts have been to bring down the rates at par with the central income tax rates. I strongly feel that taxation is a major issue which needs to be re-looked by the government to help survive the plantations industry.

In addition of holding charge as the President Upasi you are yourself a rubber grower? Can you throw some light on this sector?

Natural rubber is currently going through a bad phase. Despite the production keeping in pace with the targets, consumption continues to be low. This is due to the recession prevailing in the industrial sector especially the automobile sector, which consumes 60 per cent of the production.

Prices of rubber have been ruling low and are even lower than the bench price fixed by the government. I guess, the bench price seems to have remained seated on the bench. This year started with a opening stock of 1,88,000 tonnes and the production figures for the year 1999-2000 would touch 6,27,000 tonnes. Thus the availability figures for this year stand at 8,15,000tonnes and as against this the demand is estimated at around 6,23,00 tonnes.

This demand supply situation may result in further downtrend in rubber prices. This situation can be tackled by way of exports or by increasing the consumption. The projected rubber exports for the year are 12,000 tonnes but I doubt if this would happen.

So another measure is to increase consumption and one such measure is by rubberisation of roads. But this is again a decision to be taken by the government.

Excess supplies would definitely affect many rubber growers and quite a few of the small growers may have to bear the brunt of this situation and will have to get out of the business.

What is the contribution of plantations of south India by way of exports?

South India plantations contribute largely towards the export earnings. During 1998-99, exports of tea, coffee and cardamom fetched around Rs 2,855 crore, while that of pepper fetched around Rs 635 crore. Besides, the contribution towards excise was Rs 24crore and the labour employed was 10.3 lakhs.

About other activities of Upasi?

Besides being the mouthpiece of the plantations industry in South, Upasi is involved in quite a few other related activities through its other divisions.

Upasi has a separate tea research institute under its ambit where all activities related with tea research are undertaken. Upasi also has an R&D centre for rubber, besides the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK),. which is first of its kind to promote plantation crops specific to the remote hilly areas of the Nilgiris. KVK continued to implement quite a few projects of ICAR and Tea Board small growers development projects.