Centre to review rubber import ban

New Delhi, June 6: THE Centre is reviewing the ban on rubber imports against advanced licences, even as the rubber consuming industry and planters remain divided over the issue.

According to industry sources, the Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Omar Abdullah assured the rubber consumers and planters during a recent meeting that the government would review the situation, in a larger perspective keeping in mind, the interest of all parties.

The government has indicated that there can not be different norms for different products. The decision has to be taken for all commodities and they can not single out rubber among other items, the government is understood to have said.

Meanwhile, the rubber industry is divided on the issue with the consumers saying that the ban on imports against advanced licences should be lifted because they can not meet the specifications of their foreign customers as the required quality was not available in the country.

Mr Raghupati Singhania, Chairman of Automobile Tyre Manufacturers Association, said “the issue should be viewed with a bigger perspective considering the quality conscious international market we cater to.” He said rubber had been singled out, for banning imports against advance licences whereas the Government had not imposed any such ban on the import of other commodities like coffee and tea.

However, officials of the United Planters Association of South India (UPASI) maintain that average prices of natural rubber in the domestic market was lower than the international market and the recent price increase within the country was only a temporary phenomena.

It was advantageous to import natural rubber, only if the international prices were lower by 19 per cent, than the domestic prices against a current price advantage of 1.6 per cent, UPASI officials said.

Planters also fear a crash in prices, if the Centre agrees to the industry’s demand.

Rubber consumers also question the Rubber Board’s contention of there being a surplus stock of one lakh tonnes, arguing that in these circumstance prices would not have increased by Rs 10 per kg within the last fortnight.

They have urged the government to evolve a strategy for maintaining parity, so that the industry was not made to suffer because of increase in domestic prices and ban on advance licences imports.

-- PTI