On Wednesday 9 March the administrative committee of the Cashew Export Promotion Council of India (CEPCI) declared their opposition to the withdrawal of the 5 per cent duty on import of raw cashew nuts imposed in the 2016-2017 Union Budget. According to CEPCI chairman P. Sundaran, the duty is beneficial to genuine nut processors and exporters. He considers that the current price increases are being forced by a handful of traders who are playing on the rise in domestic demand, not international factors.
As a result of this trend, the price of raw nuts in the country went up by 40 per cent in the past year alone, Mr. Sundaran said. The CEPCI felt that because of such negative trends, the export deficit of the cashew sector had crossed Rs. 15 billion. The new import duty introduced would only serve to boost the export of kernels and curtail the widening trade deficit, he said.
Mr. Sundaran said that the country’s cashew sector was passing through tough times owing to escalating raw nut prices against falling prices of finished products resulting in processing and exports becoming unviable, leading to the closure of many factories.
He said that uncontrolled imports and multi-level trading of raw nuts was the main reasons for this unsatisfactory state of affairs. Added to that the industry had been facing issues due to large-scale processing in the unorganised sector that evaded the payment of statutory benefits to the employees as well as taxes.
The CEPCI at the same time wanted a rollback on the 4 per cent special additional duty on the product imposed, but was not averse to the .36 per cent Swachch Bharat cess.
