Page 12 - Plastics News April 2020

Recommendation to the Chairman of the Subcommittee on 'Trade, Operations and Logistic'

The following recommendations are part of the Business continuity plan and would help the plastics processing
industry to ultimately grow in midst of a 'New Normal' post lockdown. Consideration of the following would also
help the Plastics processing industry in playing an important role in 'Make in India'.
S. No. Major Issue Suggestions / Recommendations

TRADE
th
1. Custom Duty on Polymer a. After going through the presentation made in the FICCI meeting on 7 April
by CPMA President and subsequent discussions with processors, all Plastic
Associations are of the opinion that status quo should be maintained w.r.t
custom duty on polymer (No change in the import duty). Due to the current
global crisis leading to recession, consumer demand is going to be
suppressed. However, lower price of polymer and therefore affordable
plastics finished products could drive up the demand and hence could help to
retain 4.5 million jobs in plastics processing sector. This could also to some
extent compensate for the dip in the consumption due to recession. This
could also drive up the demand and hence could create huge number of jobs
in plastics processing sector. Lower polymer prices could help more than
50,000 plastics processing units in managing their working capital and
liquidity issues and therefore will ease their stress and problems to some
extent.
b. The Excess stock of Polymers with the Indian Polymer Producers (between
March 2020 and July 2019) Is just about 0.386 million tons vis-à-vis total
polymer production in the country of about 12.65 million tons for PP/PE &
PVC which is equivalent to only 11 days of production. This is quite natural as
the polymer production continued during the lock down while most of the
processing industries are closed. Thus, the stock of polymers with the
Polymer Producers cannot be termed as excess stock.

APRIL 2020 9 Plastics News