West Bengal govt makes a case for jute packaging

Concerned over pressure from different sectors for diluting the Jute Packaging Mandatory Act (JPMA) of 1987, the West Bengal government has stepped up efforts to protect the fledgling jute industry from the threat of plastics in mandatory packaging of foodgrains and sugar.

The move, according to sources, comes in the wake of the petrochemicals sector recommending a categorical phasing out of the JPMA, the virtual mainstay of the jute industry, and replacing jute with plastics.

West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya recently wrote to the Union Textiles Minister Shankersinh Vaghela, urging him to ensure 100 per cent mandatory packaging of food grains and sugar products in B Twill jute bags.

In the letter, Bhattacharya said, "You are aware of the serious challenges faced by the jute industry for its survival from the plastic lobby. Any dilution of the prevailing 100 per cent reservation norms will spell doom for the four million jute growers and 2.5 lakh industrial workers. The existing norms for 100 per cent reservation for foodgrains and sugar be maintained for another five years."

Bhattacharya's letter comes in the wake of the recently concluded meeting of the Standing Advisory Committee (SAC) on Jute. Sources attending the SAC, told Business Standard, that the general mood at the meeting was for dilution to the level of 70 per cent in sugar and food grains. The meeting, however, failed to come to a conclusion on the recommendations for a dilution and has kept the issue in abeyance.

The jute industry annually manufactures 16 lakh tonnes of jute goods valued at Rs 5,000 crore. Of this, the mandatory packaging accounts for nine lakh tonnes in volume and Rs 2,700 crore in value terms. Of the remaining seven lakh tonnes, valued at Rs 2300 crore, two lakh tonnes are exported and five lakh tonnes consumed domestically for hessian production.

Meanwhile, the organised platform of jute mill owners, the Indian Jute Mills Association (IJMA), has also approached the textile ministry protesting against the National Policy on Petrochemical Document (NPPD), which recommends the dilution of JPMA 1987. A number of MPs from West Bengal have also written to the textile ministry to stop dilution.

Earlier efforts to dilute JPMA by 10 per cent in the case of food grains and 30 per cent in sugar packaging had yielded no results.