 "Industry body seeks rollback of Customs duty on raw cashew nut")
The Karnataka Cashew Manufacturers Association (KCMA) has urged Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to roll back the 5% Customs duty imposed on raw cashew nut in the Budget.
"The duty would sound the death-knell for the cashew processing industry in the country," KCMA president Bola Rahul Kamath said in a memorandum to the finance minister.
He said cashew growers would now have to face a total of 9.55% cess due to the levy of 5% basic Customs duty on the cost, insurance and freight value on imported raw cashew nuts, besides a special additional duty of 4% and an education cess of 3%.
The memorandum pointed out that a majority of the 4,000 cashew processing units in 14 states of the country, including Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Goa, Maharashtra, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, are in micro, small and medium scale sectors.
The units employ 4,00,000 women, most of them in rural areas.
The KCMA president warned that the government's move would result in the closure of all tiny and small industries in the country, which are today the highest employment generators.
The memorandum said the biggest competitor to India in the sector is Vietnam, which had automated its processing, thus increasing the capacity.
"They are not able to compete with Indians due to our ability to realise better on combination sales, domestic as well as exports. Any drop in the international rate of seeds will help Vietnam mop up the seeds, taking away India's share of the overseas market," it said.
Kamath also cautioned that the duty would encourage unethical practices as the industry fears that the imports might come in with heavy under-invoicing or false declarations to avoid duty.
"This will result in imports getting to unethical traders and may have serious implications for the industry," he added.
"The duty would sound the death-knell for the cashew processing industry in the country," KCMA president Bola Rahul Kamath said in a memorandum to the finance minister.
He said cashew growers would now have to face a total of 9.55% cess due to the levy of 5% basic Customs duty on the cost, insurance and freight value on imported raw cashew nuts, besides a special additional duty of 4% and an education cess of 3%.
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The units employ 4,00,000 women, most of them in rural areas.
The KCMA president warned that the government's move would result in the closure of all tiny and small industries in the country, which are today the highest employment generators.
The memorandum said the biggest competitor to India in the sector is Vietnam, which had automated its processing, thus increasing the capacity.
"They are not able to compete with Indians due to our ability to realise better on combination sales, domestic as well as exports. Any drop in the international rate of seeds will help Vietnam mop up the seeds, taking away India's share of the overseas market," it said.
Kamath also cautioned that the duty would encourage unethical practices as the industry fears that the imports might come in with heavy under-invoicing or false declarations to avoid duty.
"This will result in imports getting to unethical traders and may have serious implications for the industry," he added.