"Thousands of small, domestic plastic processors are facing closure because of erratic supply of raw materials by primary producers and abnormal price increase - either we will have to pass on the increase to customers or face closure," he added.
He alleged big players raised prices for raw materials and held back supplies on their own terms in unison.
He said in the last three and a half months, prices of various grades of plastic were from 32 to 40 per cent.
"This caused great hardships to domestic small and medium plastic processing units as they are unable to pass on the increase in production cost to the customer," he added.
Poly Propylene used raw materials costing Rs 78 per kg on March 1, 2008, but was paying Rs 107 per kg now.
Prices were hiked several times a month and this raised processing cost from Rs 15-Rs 25 per kg to Rs 35 per kg on an average.
He alleged primary producers of plastic raw material were withholding supplies and blamed big players like Reliance Industries, Gas Authority of India Ltd, and the West Bengal government controlled Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL).
They were exporting materials too, he added.
Seksaria claimed that in the last five years, exports rose by 372 per cent from Rs 419 crore to Rs 1976 crore from the eastern region.
He urged the formation of a regulatory authority to curb cartelized pricing and distorted distribution of raw materials to processors.
Other demands included smooth supply of raw materials to small processors, stability in price norms, customs duty exemption on naphtha, abolition of customs duty on all polymer products and anti-dumping duty on polyvinylchloride (PVC).
In response, HPL said it supplied average 15.6KT per month of polymer in eastern region against average supply in April and May 2008 of 15.1KT a month due to production constraint in April 2008.
Due to low inventory of HPL, certain grades were not available till June 11 but production would resume and the shortfall would be made up.
HPL said two consecutive days of Bangla Bandh affected dispatches in June 2008.
HPL blamed the price rise on use of naphtha as feedstock.
Due to unprecedented rise in crude oil price to $139 a barrel, naphtha price rose to a record $1087 a ton after May 2008.
In the last budget, Government of India imposed 5 per cent customs duty on naphtha, further raising costs.
HPL procured naphtha from Indian Oil and other sources and was forced to increase polymer prices in line with international price trend.
