The Natural Rubber(NR) prices have been at relatively low levels during the past few years in domestic and international markets.  However, the rubber prices started increasing during the recent weeks and the average price for the RSS4 grade in June, 2019 was 150.29 per kg.  The NR prices are determined by market forces and a range of factors which inter-alia include trends in economic growth in major consuming countries, oil/synthetic rubber prices, weather conditions and developments in future markets. The domestic NR market generally follows the trend in world market with occasional divergences due to region specific and seasonal factors.  The domestic NR price is sensitive to import of NR.  Therefore, to regulate the import of NR, the Government has increased the duty on import of dry rubber from “20% or Rs. 30 per kg whichever is lower” to “25% or Rs. 30 per kg whichever is lower” from 30.4.2015. The Government has also reduced the period of utilization of imported dry rubber in January 2015 under advance licensing scheme from 18 months to 6 months. The Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has imposed port restriction on the import of Natural Rubber by restricting the port of entry to Chennai and NhavaSheva (Jawaharlal Nehru Port) since 20^th January, 2016.

Natural Rubber is not included in the items for which Minimum Support Price(MSP) is notified.  There is no scheme under the head “Rubber Stabilisation Fund” in the Department of Commerce.

WTO bound rate is 25% for all dry forms of NR (HS 400121, 400122 and 400129) and latex (HS 400110) is unbound.  Current applied rate of dry forms of NR is 25% or Rs. 30 per kg. whichever is lower and that of latex is 70% or Rs. 49 per kg. whichever is lower.  As the import duty of dry forms of NR is already equal to bound rate of 25%, it cannot be raised further.  Import duty of latex is already on higher side and latex formed only 1.7% of imported rubber in 2018-19.

As such, no arrears of subsidy are pending.  However, more applications than those which could be sanctioned out of approved/allocated funds, were received in the past few years.   Whenever funds are made available, these applications would be considered based on their sanction status, scheme guidelines and eligibility of the beneficiaries.

This information was given by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Hardeep Singh Puriin a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.

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MM/SB

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