THE PRESIDENT SAYS
Increase in Import Duty - Unjust he government vide its Notification
like VAT, CST, OCTROI etc
No.25/2013-Customs dated 8th May, 2013
will have cascading effect
has increased the Import Duty on Raw Materials
on locally available raw
from 5% to 7.5% and AIPMA on behalf of the
material prices, compromising
Plastic Processing industry has voiced our concerns
competitiveness of large
against the increase in the import duty.
number of units in the
T
country.
We have already written a letter to Mr. P Chidambaram, Finance Minister, Government of
Moreover this would act as a hindrance in
India, dated May 11, 2013, requesting him to review
becoming global sourcing point of plastic products.
his decision and reverse the said increase at the
The overall long term effect on the economy-drain
earliest for this would affect more than 50,000
will more than offset incremental revenue or the
plastics processors in the country.
additional comfort for raw material manufacturers. As it is with the result of the increase in duty the
As a matter of fact earlier vide Pre-budget
local polymer rates have already increased to new
Memorandum, we had voiced our concern for any
levels.
rise in duty and had requested reduction in duty to 2.5% to augment supply of Polymer raw materials
Plastics supplements most of the manufactured
to processing sector comprising.
products and is part of as packaging. The cost escalation will contribute to the price rise thereby
Processing sector has been adversely affected
fueling undesirable inflationary trend in many
due to increasing overall input costs of raw materials,
essential items like packaged food affecting
energy, human resources, transportation currency
common people.
uctuation and service support costs. This coupled with sluggish demand is serious cause for concern
Needless to say this would affect the contribution
for health of the processing sector. Also with the
of manufacturing in the overall GDP as well. The
increasing imports on almost zero duty, the increase
increase in the import duty is uncalled for and
in duty on raw materials will provide further impetus
we appeal to the Hon’ble Minister to take due
to such imports which has already captured sizable
cognizance of our concerns and if possible engage
pie of market share.
in dialogue with us satisfying our apprehensions.
The 2.5% increase in the import duty in
Dr. Asutosh Gor
raw materials when combined with other taxes
president@aipma.net
P L A S T I C S N E W S
9
M A Y 2013