Faced with crisis, plastic makers demand formation of regulatory body

Kolkata: At a time when the plastic industry is facing a tough time due to working capital shortage and rise in prices of raw materials, the Indian Plastic Federation has urged the Central government to form a regulatory committee.

"In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, plastic manufacturers, processors represented by more than 10 leading associations across the country, have demanded constitution of a regulatory authority to curb the consortium," said Ramesh Rateria, president of Indian Plastic Federation on Wednesday.

The federation had also demanded an immediate ban on the export of raw materials from India to ease out the supply in the country and to check the price rise and reduce the import duty to zero on the raw materials wherein India is import-dependent.

Rateria pointed out that the prices of raw materials (polypropylene, Polycarbonate, Polyethylene terephthalate, synthetic resin) have increased between 20 and 140 per cent over the last five months.

Post lockdown, the industry is now gearing up to scale up its operations. It is also witnessing huge working capital shortage and liquidity crunch.

The plastics industry in India consists of over 50,000 plastics processing units of which 90 per cent are MSMEs. The sector directly employs more than 50 lakh people and contributes more than Rs 3 lakh crore to the country's GDP.

"Both Central and state governments should intervene to save the plastics processing industry which is on the verge of collapse due to the dramatic increase in price of raw material," pointed out Rateria.