Rubber goods makers seek dumping duty review

KOLKATA: Rubber goods producers, who depend on imported synthetic rubber for raw material, have sought a review of anti-dumping duties levied on styrene butadiene rubber (SBR)-1900, high styrene butadiene rubber (HSR), nitrile butadiene rubber (NBR) and ethylene propylene diene rubber (EPDM).

“Since there’s huge gap between industry demand and domestic production of raw materials, the industry ideally wants anti-dumping duties to be removed. If that isn’t possible, it is open to a review of the anti-dumping duty rates which have been imposed on them at different times,” said KT Thomas, president of All India Rubber Industries Association (AIRIA).

Anti-dumping duties on SBR-1900, HSR, NBR and EPDM are levied on top of the basic import duty of 12.5%. “This is not only robbing Indian rubber goods of the competitive edge in overseas markets, but also forcing domestic consumers to pay more,” Mr Thomas said.

Usually, anti-dumping duties are levied to protect domestic producers. But in case of these items, their domestic production is negligible. According to AIRIA, the total consumption of synthetic rubber in the country is 237,495 tonnes against 97,634 tonnes produced.

The huge gap in demand-supply is met through imports. Whatever little quantity is available internally does not meet international standard, alleges Mr Thomas.