Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said that the time allowed for (matching) exports — where rubber is imported under the Advance Licensing Scheme — had been reduced from 18 months to six months.
In addition, the government would act on imports of arecanut soon. Some countries that do not grow arecanut were exporting the produce to India, she said. Ms. Sitharaman said imports had hurt the growers as prices had fallen steeply.
She was delivering a talk on the commerce policy at a programme organised by Mangalore Initiative for Nationalist Dialogue.
Assuring that the government was sensitive to growers’ issues, the Minister said importers would have to show that they had “sent out” what (the quantity) they had imported in six months, suggesting that allowing 18 months for this could give scope for manipulation. She hoped this would ensure better rate for farmers.
The Centre was encouraging rubber cultivation in the Northeast and other non-rubber growing areas to meet the demand.
Earlier, she told presspersons that the anxiety of arecanut growers was justified as the produce was being exported to India by certain countries that do not even grow it. The farmers were stressed out, she added.
Arecanut becomes unhealthy when it was clubbed with tobacco. But “...we are clear that areca nut per se has had a role in our society. It is symbolic of certain sacredness… unadulterated areca plays a role in pujas and so on,” she said, and added that the grower’s concerns had to be looked at in a comprehensive manner.
