Agartala, March 1: Tripura finance minister Badal Chowdhury has said the government revenue from the rubber sector has grown substantially in this fiscal set to end on March 31.

Chowdhury said more than 50,000 hectares of land in the state was utilised for rubber cultivation.

In an informal news meet, Chowdhury told reporters, “Rubber cultivation cannot be done on more than 25 per cent of a state’s total territory for environmental reasons. This one lakh hectare limit has to be followed but the way people have started taking to rubber we will have a tough time keeping it in check.”

He said 35,000 families were cultivating rubber.

“In terms of productivity rubber is next only to paddy, the state’s staple food. Besides, rubber produced in Tripura is of the highest quality though in terms of overall productivity, Kerala is still ahead of us. The gap is, however, closing and we will overtake Kerala soon,” said Chowdhury, adding that the state government was looking forward to earning more revenue from the rubber sector.

Describing rubber cultivation as “income multiplier”, the finance minister said rubber wood could be cheaply and profitably used to make durable furniture.

“When a rubber tree becomes 35 years old, it can be used as wood. The Tripura Forest Development and Plantation Corporation is now earning fairly high profits by making and selling furniture of processed rubber wood in its factory at Nagicherra,” he said.

He also blamed the Centre for a sudden and steep fall in rubber prices as a result of “free-market policies”.

“Only a little more than a year back rubber prices went down to Rs 20 per kg, though now it is selling at Rs 138-140 per kg,” said Chowdhury.

Regarding the budget session of the state Assembly, scheduled to commence from tomorrow, the finance minister said a demand for supplementary grants and a vote-on-account would be tabled.

“We need the supplementary grants because we are yet to get details of recommendations made by the 13th Finance Commission and there have been cost-overruns because we implemented recommendations of pay review committee for state government employees last year, incurring heavy expenses. Moreover, the government expenses for April-July will have to be taken care of with sanction from the legislature,” said Chowdhury.

Former chief minister Nripen Chakraborty had encouraged organised rubber cultivation in hilly areas, involving tribals under a number of public sector undertakings (PSUs) and corporations. Chakraborty had found this handy to resettle tribal shifting cultivators who now officially number 20,000 against the earlier figure 1.25 lakh when Chakraborty had given the green signal for rubber cultivation in Tripura.

With the passage of time rubber cultivation or “monoculture”, as it is dubbed by environmentalists, has gained momentum and the state government had earned a consolidated revenue of Rs 150 crore in the financial year 2008-2009 from taxes and duties.