Hit by rising price of domestic natural rubber due to heavy rains in Kerala, producers of rubber goods have asked the government to allow duty-free imports of 1 lakh ton of synthetic rubber, among other demands, reports Economic Times.

The rubber goods makers have asked centre to revise the inverse duty structure, as duty on the finished goods is higher than on raw materials. They have also demanded a withdrawal of anti-dumping duty on synthetic rubber, removal of cess on import of natural rubber and scrapping the system of getting Rubber Board license for natural rubber procurement.

All India Rubber Industries Association (AIRIA) said that the Rubber industry needs duty free import of 0.1 million tons of natural rubber to over come the shortage as the rubber prices has already soared by 30% .

Natural rubber production in the 2007-08 season is estimated to declined by 4% to 0.819 million tons. The estimated production will not be sufficient to meet consumption which is growing steadily at 4%.

The policy of the government is to fix the duty for raw materials lower than the duty on finished products. But the rubber industry is facing an inverse import duty structure. While the customs duty on finished rubber goods have been brought down to 10%, duties on natural rubber and latex remained unaltered at 20% and 70% respectively.