Page 56 - Plastics News April 2023

IN THE NEWS

percent to a monthly average of their import would continue to rise. from these countries which may sup-
US$64.45 million during the De- By contrast, plastic producers re- port domestic products and reduce
cember 2022-February 2023 period, quested the government to imple- imports,” said another participant on
compared to its average month-wise ment the quality control order for condition of anonymity.
import of 18.67 between financial both raw materials and finished prod- It is worth mentioning here that the
year FY2017-18 and FY2021-22. A ucts. They said that the quality control delta margins (the difference between
similar increase was seen in chlorin- order will singularly control imports the cost of input and finished product)
ated polyvinyl chloride (CPVC) resin as its levy will restrict the dumping presently work out to a mere 2.5 per-
which saw a jump of nearly 204 per- of low-quality products. According cent, with the import duty on poly-
cent to US$89.45 million between the to a participant, a huge quantity of mers and finished value-added plastics
December 2022 and February 2023 low-quality cheap materials is being products standing at 7.5 percent and
period versus financial years FY2017- imported to India which competes 10 percent respectively. With such
18 and FY2021-22. Other varieties with domestic products and thereby low delta margins, plastics process-
of polymers also saw a significant in- affects sales of local products such as ing does not make any sense in India
crease in their imports in the last early toys. due to exorbitantly high-interest rates
2023. on working capital and labour costs.
“This needs to be restricted with a
The proposal of a polymer price in- higher import duty of at least 20 per- Industry players have recommended
crease was objected by the producers cent from the existing 10 percent that the government should raise this
of domestic value-added plastics im- on finished plastic products. Apart delta margin to 10 percent at least.
porters. Plastics producers urged the from that, India needs to impose However, the government wants to
government that the increase in im- quality control norms for import- reduce import dependence and save
port duty on polymers would raise in- ing high-quality products. This will valuable foreign currency reserves in
put costs for them which will eventu- automatically reduce the import of its attempt to make India truly ‘aat-
ally be passed on to consumers. This finished products. On some finished manirbhar’ in both polymers and fin-
necessarily means prices of plastic plastics products, however, import ished plastics products. At the same
products would go up further, in pro- duty works out 15 percent, but the time, India plans to increase the ex-
portion to the increase in import duty. duty stands ‘nil’ on their import from port of finished products to raise for-
This way, the import of plastic ends countries with trade agreements i.e. eign currency reserves.
products would become uncompeti- ASEAN. India also needs to negoti-
tive in the Indian markets and hence,
ate better in terms of plastics imports

17,000 tonnes of multi-layered plastic choking Karnataka; KSPCB says all is
well

esponding to a petition on the fail- "Manufacture and use of multi-layered gets.
Rure to end the menace of multi- plastic which is non-recyclable or Last year, Krishna A and others moved
layered plastic, the Karnataka State non-energy recoverable or with no the National Green Tribunal (NGT)
Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) has alternate use of plastic, if any, should over the failure of the state pollu-
told the NGT that it has issued notic- be phased out in two years' time," tion control boards to implement the
es to stakeholders and hence a peti- Section 9(3) of the rules said. rules, specifically targeting the men-
tion seeking enforcement of the rule As that deadline expired in 2018, the ace of multi-layered plastic.
should be “dismissed with cost”. ministry, in February 2022, issued ex- In its seven-page counter affidavit
In March 2016, the ministry of envi- tended producer responsibility (EPR) dated January 31, 2023, KSPCB says
ronment, forest & climate change no- guidelines for various classes of plas- there are 263 producers, import-
tified plastic waste management rules, tic. Besides the EPR targets of 25 per ers and brand owners (PIBOs) of
2016. Among the major initiatives in cent in 2021-22, 70 per cent in 2022- multi-layered plastic, who generate
the rules was the two-year deadline 23 and 100 per cent in 2023-24, the 17,222.89 tonnes per annum. The af-
for phasing out multi- layered plastic. guidelines set obligatory recycling tar- fidavit says PIBOs have EPR targets of

56 PLASTICS NEWS April 2023