Worried over the drastic fall in the prices of subabul and eucalyptus, farmers have urged the Centre to come out with policy initiatives to support the growers in the drought-prone region.
A delegation of farmers, led by former Minister Vadde Sobhandreswara Rao, called on Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and pressed for a direction to the Central GST council to impose zero tax on the logs.
Imposition of GST on subabul and eucalyptus, including debarked ones, was not justified as their essential characteristics had not undergone any change.
Allowing duty free import of paper pulp had contributed a market crash leading to unbearable loss to the growers, they said. The prices of subabul and eucalyptus ruled over ₹4,200 per tonne during 2014. Now it ranged from ₹1,500 to ₹2,500 per tonne only, explained All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee Prakasam district president Ch.Ranga Rao on return from New Delhi on Tuesday.
The Centre should impose countervailing duty to discourage import of paper pulp as imports proved to be detrimental to domestic growers.
The government should ensure reasonable prices for the logs taking into consideration the cost of production and the prevailing international prices, All India Kisan Sabha national vice-president R.Venkaiah said.
This was needed to arrest the declining forest cover from the ideal 33% to 22%. A suitable direction should be given to the forest department to grow only trees of long life leaving social forestry plantations to the farmers who make a living out of it in drought-prone areas.
Eucalyptus is grown in an extent of over 1.10 lakh acres and subabul in about 60,000 acres in Prakasam district.
