The centre, as a relief for the domestic tyre manufacturers who had been urging Finance Minister P. Chidambaram to retain the current import duty structure on natural rubber imports, has refrained from increasing customs duty on natural rubber imports for now. Pressure was also mounted on the Finance Ministry to hike the specific duty component of import duty on natural rubber.
The proposal for natural rubber duty hike was mooted at a time when domestic rubber prices were lower than international by Rs 18-20 a kg. Since the second half of December 2012 and early January this year, the pitch was getting louder for review of import duty on natural rubber. Currently, import duty on natural rubber is pegged at 20 per cent or Rs 20 a kg, whichever is lower.
Also, there are issues of shortfall in domestic availability, imperatives of import for reasons of quality of natural rubber required by the tyre sector and continuing tightness in domestic natural rubber supplies due to lean season.
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