Lok Sabha Question No. 1321 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2016-05-02
Subject: Natural Rubber
Ministry: COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY
Asked by: PRAHLAD SINGH PATEL, ANTO  ANTONY, SAUGATA ROY

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMERCE & INDUSTRY (DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE)

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1321 TO BE ANSWERED ON 02 nd  MAY, 2016

## NATURAL RUBBER

## 1321. SHRI PRAHLAD SINGH PATEL: SHRI ANTO ANTONY: PROF. SAUGATA ROY

Will  the  Minister  of COMMERCE & INDUSTRY ( वािणÏय एवं उɮयोग मंत्री ) be pleased to state:

- (a) the average price of natural rubber in domestic and international market during the last five months along with the details of imports of natural rubber during the said period, month and country -wise;
- (b) whether large -scale import of natural rubber has caused fall in price of natural rubber in the domestic market and if so, the details thereof;
- (c) whether the Government proposes to improve the cultivation of rubber in the country especially in North Eastern States including Manipur and if so, the details thereof along with the total revenue earned by various States therefrom, State -wise including North Eastern States;
- (d) whether the Government proposes to open a Rubber Board branch office in the North East and if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor;
- (e) whether there is any proposal to increase the import duty on natural rubber and synthetic rubber and if so, the details thereof along with the steps taken by the Government to help the rubber farmers suffering due to steep fall in the price of natural rubber; and
- (f) whether any State has sought special package for rubber farmers and if so, the details thereof ?

## ANSWER

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## THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) (SMT. NIRMALA SITHARAMAN)

- (a): Average price of natural rubber in domestic and international markets during the last five months and Statistics on country-wise import of Natural Rubber(NR) during the last five months is given at Annexure-1.

(b): Price of NR in the domestic market is highly sensitive to the volume and timing of import corresponding to the domestic consumption. However, several other reasons which influence the rubber prices include inter alia, trends in global demand, economic growth in major consuming countries,  oil/synthetic  rubber  prices,  weather  conditions,  currency  exchange  rates  of  major exporters and developments in futures markets etc.

(c): The Government is implementing the scheme 'Sustainable and inclusive development of natural  rubber  sector  'duringthe  12 th Plan  with  the  aim  of  improving  cultivation  of  Natural Rubber in the county. The Scheme includes inter alia, components for promoting expansion of area under rubber, enhancing productivity and research development activities.  New planting of rubber  in  non-traditional  rubber  growing  regions  including  North  East  is  promoted  under  the Scheme. Area under rubber and production in 2014-15 including North-Eastern States is given in Annexure-II. NR is subject to levy of cess which is collected by the Centre Government in the consuming  state  and  utilised  for  development  of  rubber  sector.  Details  of  cess  collected  in various states is at Annexure-III.

(d): Rubber Board has 3 Zonal offices, 14 Regional Offices and 33 Field Stationsin North East for promoting rubber production/development activities.

(e): Government  had  enhanced  the  duty  on  import  of  NR  from  '20%  or  Rs.30/-  per  kg whichever  is  lower'  to  the  maximum  level  of  '25%  or  Rs.30/-  per  kg  whichever  is  lower', beingthe WTO bound rate.The present import duty on Synthetic rubber (SR) is 10%. There is currently  no  proposal  to  increase  the  import  duty  of  NR  andSR.However,  the  Government hastaken various steps to regulate import of NR such as reduction in export obligation period, restriction on imports through specific ports and licensing under advance authorization for rubber sector. Impact of measures taken to regulate imports and promote exports are reviewed regularly by the Government in line with its overall policy for promoting overall industrial growth.

(f): State Government of Kerala has requested the Central Government to earmark Rs 500 crores  from  the  Price  Stabilization  Fund  maintained  by  the  Department  of  Commerce  for Plantation  Crops  with  a  view  to  provide  additional  price  support  of  at  least  Rs.50/Kg  to  NR framers. Natural Rubber being a commercial crop is not considered for minimum price support. Moreover, price support of Rs 50/Kg involves cash subvention of large amounts at the current level of production for which adequate financial resources are currently not available.

*****

## Annexure-I

## Annexure 1 referred to in part(a) of Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 1321 to be answered on 02.5.2016.

Statement showing Month-wise and country-wise import of Natural Rubber from November 2015

| Month         |   Vietnam |   Thailand |   Bangladesh |   Cameron |   Indonesia | Sri Lanka   |   Malaysia |   Africa |   Nigeria |   Côte d'Ivoire |
|---------------|-----------|------------|--------------|-----------|-------------|-------------|------------|----------|-----------|-----------------|
| November 2015 |      9084 |       5837 |          822 |       101 |       17122 | 0           |        831 |        0 |         0 |             827 |
| December 2015 |     12314 |       8343 |          879 |         0 |       20538 | 6           |       1011 |        0 |         0 |            1311 |
| January 2016  |     12455 |       5420 |          420 |        81 |       18219 | 0           |        968 |      101 |       101 |            1109 |
| February 2016 |      7647 |       5187 |            0 |         0 |       12262 | 6           |        746 |        0 |       504 |             302 |
| March 2016    |      3270 |       8434 |          208 |         0 |       15252 |             |        646 |        0 |       100 |             100 |

to March 2016 (in tonne) (Provisional)

## Statement on average price of NR in domestic and international market during the last five months

[Price in Rs per Kg]

| Period        |   Average price of RSS-4 grade in domestic market |   Average price of comparable grade (RSS3) in Bangkok |
|---------------|---------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------|
| November 2015 |                                            109.54 |                                                 81.63 |
| December 2015 |                                            102.79 |                                                 84.12 |
| January 2016  |                                             97.8  |                                                 83.05 |
| February 2016 |                                             93.55 |                                                 86.68 |
| March 2016    |                                            108.12 |                                                 97.76 |

## Annexure II referred to in part(c) of Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 1321 to be answered on 02.5.2016.

## State-wise rubber planted area and production in rubber growing states (2014-15)

| State                 |   Area (ha) |   Production (tonne) |
|-----------------------|-------------|----------------------|
| Kerala                |      549955 |               507700 |
| Tamil Nadu            |       20925 |                23785 |
| Traditional Total     |      570880 |               531485 |
| Tripura               |       75070 |                47000 |
| Assam                 |       51795 |                17310 |
| Meghalaya             |       14775 |                 8510 |
| Nagaland              |       14235 |                 2390 |
| Manipur               |        3955 |                 1150 |
| Mizoram               |        3550 |                  360 |
| Arunachal Pradesh     |        4065 |                  295 |
| North East Total      |      167445 |                77015 |
| Karnataka             |       49210 |                34560 |
| A&N Islands           |         805 |                  205 |
| Goa                   |        1165 |                  630 |
| Maharashtra           |        2310 |                  395 |
| Odisha                |        1840 |                  305 |
| West Bengal           |         850 |                  325 |
| Andhra Pradesh        |         630 |                   80 |
| Others Total          |       56810 |                36500 |
| Non Traditional Total |      224255 |               113515 |
| Grand Total           |      795135 |               645000 |

Annexure-III  referred  to  in  part  (c)  of  Lok  Sabha  Unstarred  Question  No.  1321  to  be answered on 2.5.2016

## COLLECTION OF CESS - 2014-15 (Rs '000)

|    | State            |      Cess |   Interest |     Total |
|----|------------------|-----------|------------|-----------|
|  1 | Assam            |    466.31 |       2.78 |    469.09 |
|  2 | AndhraPradesh    |  20332.7  |     203.79 |  20536.5  |
|  3 | Bihar            |    144.71 |       0.05 |    144.76 |
|  4 | Chandigarh       |     15.5  |       0    |     15.5  |
|  5 | Chattisgarh      |   1008.28 |       5.49 |   1013.77 |
|  6 | Delhi            |   6971.48 |      87.55 |   7059.03 |
|  7 | Gujarat          |  22461.2  |     347.42 |  22808.7  |
|  8 | Goa              |   1412.55 |       7.37 |   1419.93 |
|  9 | Haryana          |  63559.7  |     555.36 |  64115    |
| 10 | Himachal Pradesh |   5379.43 |     149.43 |   5528.86 |
| 11 | Jammu &Kashmir   |    200    |       0    |    200    |
| 12 | Jharkhand        |    853.44 |       3.01 |    856.45 |
| 13 | Kerala           | 179237    |     959.24 | 180196    |
| 14 | Karnataka        |  20821.6  |     201.25 |  21022.8  |
| 15 | Maharashtra      | 103625    |     410.84 | 104036    |
| 16 | Manipur          |     13.98 |       0    |     13.98 |
| 17 | Madhya Pradesh   |  31790    |     200.38 |  31990.4  |
| 18 | Meghalaya        |      0    |       0    |      0    |
| 19 | Mizoram          |      0    |       0    |      0    |
| 20 | Nagaland         |      0    |       0    |      0    |
| 21 | Orissia          |  45942.5  |      22.18 |  45964.7  |
| 22 | Pondicherry      |   3991.07 |       8.73 |   3999.8  |
| 23 | Punjab           | 109715    |    1862.63 | 111578    |
| 24 | Rajasthan        | 122340    |     303.29 | 122643    |
| 25 | Sikkim           |      0    |       0    |      0    |
| 26 | Tamilnadu        | 231507    |     603.07 | 232110    |
| 27 | Tripura          |   3583.56 |       0    |   3583.56 |

| 28   | Uttar Pradesh   |        61558.88 |   538.79 |        62097.68 |
|------|-----------------|-----------------|----------|-----------------|
| 29   | Uttaranjal      |  6397.12        |    56.83 |  6453.94        |
| 30   | West Bengal     | 17108           |   244.43 | 17352.4         |
|      | Sole Crepe      |   142           |     0    |   142           |
|      | Dealers/Unreg   |    64.94        |     0    |    64.94        |
|      | Old Dues        |     4           |     0    |     4           |
|      | Total           |     1.06065e+06 |  6773.89 |     1.06742e+06 |