Govt urged to waive VAT on coir

Coir Board chairman A C Jose has appealed to the Andhra Pradesh government to waive VAT on coir and coir products on the lines of the other southern states to give a boost to the industry.

He was speaking at the inaugural session of the one-day seminar on coir industry, organised by the Coir Board, Visakhapatnam regional office, on Sunday at Rajahmundry.

"The coir industry is now slowly gaining momentum in Andhra Pradesh. The state government should take steps to give an impetus," he said. He said the board would encourage cluster development and motorised traditional ratt for production of quality yarn.

He said there would be three clusters at Rajahmundry, Amalapuram and Srikakulam. Two more would be set up later. He said training programmes would be organised for workers and incentives and subsidies would be given for setting up new units.

Jose said the regional office of the board would be shifted from Visakhapatnam to Rajahmundry, as the twin Godavari districts (East and West Godavari) accounted for the bulk of coconut production in the state. A training centre would also be set up in Rajahmundry soon.

Jose said nearly a lakh jobs could be created in the rural areas, especially for women, if the coir industry was encouraged in the state. Training of women and issue of ratts at 75 per cent subsidy would be taken up under the Mahila Coir Yojana scheme.

The total export of coir and coir products from the country during 2005-06 amounted to 1,32,962 tonnes valued Rs 502 crore against 1,22,927 tonnes valued Rs 473.40 crore during the previous year.

He said coir board extended assistance in the promotion of exports by way of participation in fairs abroad and also for undertaking sales and study tours. Under the scheme, 90 per cent of the airfare and 50 per cent of the space rent were reimbursed, subject to a maximum of Rs 1 lakh.

Inaugurating the seminar, Rajahmundry MP Vundavilli Arunkumar welcomed the decision of the board to shift the regional office to Rajahmundry and to set up a training centre here. He offered all help to the board and coir industry.

Rajahmundry MLA Routhu Suryaprakasa Rao, Coir Board members J V Seshagiri, G V R Somasekhar and P Jagannadha Raju and the board regional officer TP Padmanabhan spoke.

State to consider the plea

The state government would consider removing coir products from the VATable items' list in view of the difficulties faced by the coir industry in the state, chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy assured the Coir Board chairman when the latter met him.

During his discussions, Jose told the chief minister that coir being a cottage industry was facing several problems including the shortage of raw material.