Imports hit marble units in Rajasthan

Rajasthan's marble industry is facing hardships due to the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) increasing the quantity of marble import by around four times in the past two years.

The Centre for Development of Stones (CDOS), the apex body of marble industrialists in Rajasthan, has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh apprising him about the problems and also requested him to intervene in the matter.

The letter says the circular issued by the DGFT on July 26 seeks to increase import of marble blocks from the present 130,000 tonnes to 195,000 tonnes. Increased demand and the unused quota of the previous year were cited as reasons for this.

"The imports have been increased from 50,000 tonnes to 195,000 tonnes," Ashok Kumar Dhoot, vice-chairman, CDOS, said. "If a chosen few are issued import licences for huge quantities of marble blocks, it will cripple the Indian marble industry, on which over 200,000 families in Rajasthan are dependent."

With the changing market scenario and increasing purchasing power, Indian marble processors have to buy imported marble from a handful of sellers at exorbitant prices.

The marble industry in the country is mainly concentrated in Rajasthan. Nearly 4,000 tiny and small-scale units and over 2,000 artisan units are involved.

Rajasthan has 1,100 million tonnes of the known Indian resources of 1,200 million tonnes (91 per cent of India's deposits) and 95 per cent of India's marble production.

In 2001, the Marble Associations of Rajasthan had been assured by the DGFT that it will issue licences to marble importers for about 18,000 MT per year.

But since then, the government has ignored representations of marble associations and has periodically increased the limit, and it stood at 130,000 MT in 2006-07 and now again hiked to 195,000 MT. In the last two years marble import licences have been increased from 50,000 MT to 1,95,000 MT.