Rubber industry urges government to correct inverted duty structure

The country's rubber industry has urged the government to correct the inverted duty structure on rubber products to minimize import and boost exports.

Shashi Kumar Singh, vice president of All India Rubber Industries Association said “Government should consider providing adequate support and handholding to the producers for enhancing the localisation in the rubber sector of India.Import of raw materials such as natural rubber and latex attract import duties of as high as 25%, while that on finished goods is much lower, which impacts the local rubber goods-producing industry."

Furthermore, he added “India should correct the customs duty for the sector. Rubber Industries use more than 50 raw materials and synthetic rubber of which many are not produced in India, some of them also attract anti-dumping duty."


The ideal custom duty structure for growth in the country should be the highest for finished goods and the lowest for raw materials. At present, the structure stands inverted.

The sector has to resort to importing of natural rubber as the quality produced in the country is not "up to the mark" and the tyre manufacturers buy the bulk of domestically-produced high-quality supplies, leaving no choice for the MSMEs and the other rubber goods producers than to go for imports for good quality raw materials from foreign players.

"In line with the Centre's vision to make a self-reliant India, the nation has tremendous potential to grow and could become a hub for sourcing rubber components and products if the inverted duty structure in the rubber sector is corrected," said Mr Singh.