Plastic traders, industries to organise hartal on Jul 7

Puducherry, Jul 4: Plastic traders and industries in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry would observe hartal on July seven and conduct a fast at Chepauk in Chennai to press the Centre to take immediate steps to save the industry.

Addressing a press conference here today, All Puducherry Plastic Traders and Industries Association President, S Rajaganapathy and Secretary Babu, said that there were about 8,000 registered plastic industries in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry and 9,000 unregistered units giving direct employment to three lakh and indirect employment to five lakh people. Their profit depended on the cost of the raw materials which was produced by only a few industries like Reliance and Halda, they added.

They alleged that Reliance Industries had exported their product and created an artificial scarcity for raw materials recently, thereby enhancing its price. This in turn led to the price rice of food materials also, they added.

They demanded that the Centre take steps to abolish the excise duty and additional import duty on plastic raw materials and should impose 25 per cent export duty on it. The ceiling for the imposition of Production Tax should be enhanced to Rs five crore from the present Rs 1.5 crore.

On the frequent power cuts in the government industrial estates here, they urged the administration to take immediate steps to provide uninterrupted power.

UNI