At a time when domestic industries are facing a supply shortage in natural rubber, the move to include the commodity as the 47th item in the Market-Linked Focus Product Scheme(MLFPS) for exports is alarming, said Vinod T Simon President, All India Rubber Industries Association(AIRIA).
MLFPS scheme provides incentives to boost exports in branded natural rubber to the identified foreign destinations and opposing the scheme, he added: ?We are greatly alarmed by the inclusion and would very much take up the matter duly with the rubber board of India?.
K Srikanth, conveyor of natural rubber conference expressed optimism that rubber board would consider their demand on MLFPS. ?For long time, we have been at loggerheads in representing various issues of the industry, but things have changed for good in the last 2 years with rubber board keen on hearing the views of AIRIA on policy matters impacting the sector?, he said.
The other contentious that AIRIA wants to amicably sort out with rubber board is the alleged inflated inventory on natural rubber. There is a deficit of around 75,000 tonne of natural rubber which is reportedly refuted by the rubber board that is opposed to the idea of importing the commodity. ?The deficit has jumped from 66,000 tonne in 2011 to 75,000 tonne in 2012. We would submit our plea to the rubber board on revisiting the stock position on natural rubber to ascertain actual available stock?, he said and added that consumption has outpaced production in the last 2 years majorly due to radialisation of tyres by the tyre manufacturers.