Bengal hopes to attract investments of around ₹1500 crore in a proposed rubber manufacturing cluster under development at Howrah.

“We are working on the development of a mega industrial cluster in Howrah under the collaborative efforts of WBIDC and the state government and the Union ministry of commerce. It is being developed under the public private partnership mode,” said Bengal industries minister Shashi Panja at a conference organised by the All India Rubber Industries Association (AIRIA) on Wednesday.

“One company has started to function. There are six more under construction. We are expecting more to come as allotments are happening fast,” the minister said.

The project is being developed through a special purpose vehicle called South Asia Rubber and Polymers Park with representation from the WBIDC, the commerce ministry and the private sector on its board.

The minister added that the state has seen a 7 per cent rise in export of rubber and allied products with a large part of the exports from the state going to the US, UAE, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia. With rubber plantations being developed in the northern parts of Bengal and also in the Northeast, the minister expects more MSMEs to set up their units.

Inverted duty

The rubber industry hopes that the government would consider correcting the present inverted duty structure in the upcoming Union budget where import duty on natural rubber is more than that of the finished products making import of finished products cheaper.

Shahshi Kumar Singh, national president of AIRIA, told The Telegraph that currently there is a substantial gap between production and consumption of natural rubber, requiring the need to import. While there is a customs duty of the higher of 25 per cent or ₹30 per kilo on import of natural rubber, finished products currently attract an import duty of around 10 per cent.