Kerala CM Oommen Chandy requests government to stop rubber pimports

Concerned over falling rubber prices, the Government of Kerala asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday to take steps for stopping rubber imports and include the industry in the Make in India scheme.

Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and state leader ofOpposition V S Achuthanandan, who jointly met the Prime Minister here, said that over 3.25 lakh MT of natural rubber has been imported though there is a stock of 1.8 lakh MT of natural rubber leading to slashing of rubber prices.

"The rubber price has come down to Rs 120/kg which was earlier about Rs 240/Kg. Now rubber cultivation is not remunerative at all and farmers are forced to leave it. To arrest this steep price fall, the import of rubber should be stopped with immediate effect," they said in a memorandum submitted to Modi.

Pointing out that huge quantities of non-tyre finished products are being imported from China resulting in the destruction of the domestic small scale rubber industries, they sought increasing the import duty of sheet rubber and block rubber from 20% to 25%.

The memorandum also sought inclusion of Cochin airport in Hub Airport Policy, continuation of allocation of 30,048 kl of kerosene quarterly to help meet the basic requirement for PDS as well as for the traditional fisherfolk and assent by President to the Plachimada Bill 2011.

The duo also met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu and discussed several other issues.