IRDF to call for hartal on Apr 16

Kottayam, Apr 13 (UNI) The Indian Rubber Dealers Federation (IRDF) has appealed to Union Commerce Minister Kamal Nath to desist from the move to reduce the import duty on natural rubber as it would adversely affect the growers and economy of the state.

IRDF President George Valy today said the dealers would call for a hartal on April 16 to protest the Centre's move to import large quantity of natural rubber by reducing the import duty.

The present stock of natural rubber in the country was 1,62,000 tonnes. Further, the traders had imported 86,225 ton of natural rubber during the year 2006-07, which was a record, he said.

Mr Valy said Thailand was producing only around 3.2 million tonnes of natural rubber and if the import duty reduction helped Thailand, it would adversely affect the domestic growers.

He appealed to the LDF Convenor Vaikom Viswan and Opposition Leader Oommen Chandy to mount pressure on the Union Commerce Minister to drop the proposal taking into account the larger interests of the domestic growers.

The IRDF leaders would meet the Commerce Minister to persuade him to desist from the proposal, he added.

UNI