| Date: |
05-07-2016 |
| Subject: |
'Centre must hike import duty on bamboo products' |
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Guwahati: The Bamboo Industries Association of India (BIAI) is worried about the future of country-made bamboo products in the face of 'grave threat' from China, Taiwan and Vietnam. The organization has urged the Centre to increase the import duty on bamboo products.
BIAI, the leading organization of entrepreneurs engaged in bamboo industry, in its second annual general meeting held in the city on Monday, said if the Union government did not take measures to increase safeguard duty on bamboo products that are being imported to India on a large scale, the indigenous bamboo industries of the country will face an imminent danger of complete shut down as they are presently in a nascent stage, in absence of political patronage.
"At present, duty on bamboo products imported from China is 30%, while the same in case of the ASEAN countries is as low as 10%. Unless the Centre impose safeguard duty in order to hike the import duty on the products, the indigenous industries in India will face crisis. From bamboo products to machinery for processing bamboo, large scale import has harmed the interests of the local producers and manufacturers of the country," said Anand Agarwal, vice-president of BIAI here on Monday, reiterating the demand of the bamboo entrepreneurs to raise the import duty to 50 % or more.
The industry body rued that the National Mission on Bamboo Applications (NMBA) that has been merged with North East Centre for Technology Application and Reach (NECTAR) could not provide any technological aid to the manufacturers of bamboo products.
The association urged NECTAR to withdraw all cases lodged against the entrepreneurs for being defaulters to repay their loans.
"NMBA could not develop technology on a commercial basis nor could import suitable technology and adopt it to suit local conditions. We urge the government to help us in planting the bamboo species that can help in commercialization of the products ," said president of the association Rajib Goswami.
Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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