It’s Raj rule in marble policy

People in southern and eastern states who want to buy marble shell out extra money than those in the western region as the country’s marble import policy is tilted towards Rajasthan traders.
DNA has found that the Rajasthan marble lobby has been able to get the import policy tweaked to their advantage, by conniving with policy makers.

As a result, 90 per cent of those who won import licences this year are from Rajasthan. Last year, it was 84 per cent.

The information, including the list of importers during the last three years, obtained from the Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) under the Right to Information Act suggests how Rajasthan traders have been able to corner a major chunk of the licences.

Not even a single unit from southern and eastern states got an import licence in the last two years. As Rajasthan traders import marble to their state, people in far-off areas who want imported marble pay more — add the transportation costs.

“We have no other option but to pass on the transportation cost to the consumers,” JB Surana of Surana Stones, Bangalore.
So much extra do others end up paying? Going by the current transportation charges, a customer in Chennai pays about Rs 30-40 extra for a sq ft of marble compared to a customer in Rajasthan.

For instance, if the marble block lands at Mundra or Kandla (the ports preferred by Rajasthan traders), the importer pays about Rs 1,500- 1,700 per tonne for transporting it to their warehouse. To transport it to Chennai then, the trader pays an additional Rs 2,800-Rs 3,000 per tonne. This causes the price of marble to rise by about Rs 30-40 per sq ft.

If traders in Tamil Nadu or Karnataka get import licences, the extra cost could be eliminated as the cost of shipping marble to Mundra or Chennai is almost the same. “If we are allowed to import marble, we can process it here and give it to consumers at a lower price,” a Hyderabad-based natural stone manufacturer said.
Then, how come the import policy is heavily partial to Rajasthan marble processors at the expense of their counterparts in other states?

Outside Rajasthan, marble reserve is scarce in other parts of the country. So, for a long time, very few traders outside the desert state were able to process marble when they got import licences.
Slowly, the Rajasthan lobby started influencing the policy.

As per the latest policy, an applicant has to have a cumulative turnover of Rs 5 crore during 2005-06 to 2009-10. This out rightly denies any chance to small players to think of importing marble.
Since Indian marble costs anywhere between Rs. 20 to Rs40 per sq. ft —imported marble sells for over Rs 200 per sq ft —  the small traders can not think big, thanks to the anomaly in the policy.
Further, the import policy bases the eligibility on the number of gang-saw machines held by Marble processing units. This again directly hits the small and up-and-coming players.

This issue has been raised by Rajya Sabha member from Andhra Pradesh Syed Azeez Pasha, who wrote to the prime minister about it. In the letter, Pasha said: “It is abundantly clear… that these notifications and circulars have been framed and twisted to benefit certain big players of this field causing huge loss to the government’s exchequer.” 

DNA has a copy of this letter signed by 14 MPs. When contacted, DGFT refused to comment on the issue.

As a result of the twisted policy, marble processing units in other parts of the country are going sick. The DNA investigations team found 30-40 marble processing units in Andhra Pradesh grappling with a severe shortage of raw material after the closure of granite quarries.

In Khammam district of Andhra Pradesh, Devi Singh, manager of Venkateshwara Granite, said that to overcome this shortage, the industry is seeking a change in the policy enabling imports of rough blocks of marble without restrictions.

Now, many of these sick units are trying to modify the existing facility to suit granite cutting, with a hope to realize whatever possible income out of the investment made.