Opposition parties on Thursday forced the government to defer the Rubber (amendment) Bill in the Lok Sabha due to the absence of commerce minister Anand Sharma and MoS for commerce & industry Jyotiraditya Scindia.

Later, a commerce ministry statement blamed the ?repeated adjournment? by Opposition parties for the delay in moving the Bill.

This is the second bill, that has been adjourned in the current session of the Parliament?the first one being the Judges (Declaration of Assets and Liabilities) Bill in Rajya Sabha on August 3.

While Sharma is in Seoul for the signing of a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement(Cepa), Scindia is in Indonesia on an official tour, a commerce ministry release said.

The proposed legislation was to be discussed on 3-4 August in the lower house of the Parliament. ?Because of repeated adjournments by Opposition Parties, it could not be taken up for discussion,? the release said.

In addition, the commerce ministry also clarified that Sharma had taken permission from the chair of the house to authorise minister of state for parliamentary affairs and minister of state in PMO Prithviraj Chavan to place the bill for discussion.

?Shri Pawan Kumar Bansal, minister of parliamentary affairs explained to the members that the government had planned to take the Bill a few days ago and it is just a matter of co-incidence that the Bill came up for discussion today when ministers were away to attend important international events,? the release added.

The Bill seeks to do away with many archaic provisions in the Rubber Act of 1947 and delicense the plantation and re-plantation of rubber estates. In addition, the Bill also seeks to reimburse Rs 16.7 crore worth of excise duties collected from the sector between April 1961 to August 2003.

According to agency reports, when Chavan stood up to present the Bill, opposition members led by BJP objected to the absence of Sharma and Scindia. Deputy Speaker

Karia Munda had to adjourn the house for an hour due to this.

When the house reconvened, Parliamentary Affairs Minister P K Bansal announced that the Bill was being deferred.

?Is this bill so important that it has to be passed in the absence of the ministers concerned? Who will answer our questions with regard to the legislation as both ministers are away,? BJP member Sushma Swaraj asked.

Experts said, almost two lakh tonne of natural rubber could end up unsold due to the contradictions in the new amendment made in the 60-year-old Rubber Act, 1947. ?The key issues that cause worry to the farmers and traders relate to quality standards and collection of cess,? N Radhakrishnan, president of the Cochin Rubber Merchants? Association told FE.

?Quality of rubber in India is adopted from the old US standards and there are only five grades ranging from RSS 1-V. However, most of the rubber, say more than 30% of the total rubber production in India, falls below the new grading. It is violation to sell or buy rubber below the specifications,? he added.