Market analysts say the current fall in rubber prices is largely due to unauthorised imports and the obvious inertia of procurement agencies. It is by flashing the advance licences issued days before the rubber import ban that the imports continue unimpeded, Rubber Board officials said.

Despite the State Trading Corporation (STC) offering rubber at international market price, the scramble for imports is seen as a concerted move to keep the prices down. It may be recalled that the imports are made, paying a duty of 27.05 per cent. When the international price was very low, the imports using OGL had been in full swing. Even after paying the 27.05 per cent tariff and the 2.5 per cent clearing fee, imports were found viable for tyremanufacturers.

However, when the STC is game for price parity with international market, the defiance to stick to imports even bearing the tariff extras smacks of a concerted game plan to keep the rubber prices down a spokesman of the All- India Rubber Dealers' Association KT Mathew said.

RSS-4 unsorted rubber, which had enjoyed a nominal price rise in the last fortnight, saw a crash in prices of Rs 25-75 per quintal. It was in February 1999 that the government put a clamp on rubber imports to help the farmers.However, after a two- month breather, imports appear to have made an easy come-back. According to Rubber Board statistics, in the five months between April and August, 8,300 tonnes of rubber were imported.

The rough estimates for the subsequent months are 900 tonnes in September and 860 tonnes in October. In total, about 12,000 tonnes rubber appears to have been imported after the ban. This has happened when there is more than 20,000 tonnes stock with the procurement agencies,including the StateTrading Corporation. The unhampered imports have triggered stockpiling and fall in domestic prices.

Meanwhile, the 2.5-lakh strong Rubber Farmers' Association has written to the commerce ministry pointing out that the procurement agencies are yet to mop up 50,000 tonnes of rubber currently in the market.

It is more than three weeks since Rubco has been authorised to export 5,000 tonnes of rubber. The import trickles have gathered momentum , amidst reports of government's failure to export 50,000 tonnes of rubber for over three months.

While the farmers and rubber dealers alleged that neither the Rubber Board nor the procurement agencies have been able to cap the import flow, the benchmark price fixed by union government is yet to translate to reality. Even after nine months, the rubber farmer has not been able to avail of the benchmark price of Rs 34.05 per kilo.