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| IJMA seeks PM's intervention to maintain jute bag quota |
| Jayajit Dash / Bhubaneswar Aug 13, 2009, 00:29 IST |
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 Keeping in view the interest of more than four million jute cultivators and 2.5 million jute workers across the country, the Indian Jute Mills Association (IJMA) has sought the intervention of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to continue 100 per cent reservation for jute bags in 2009-10.
In a last ditch effort to reverse the proposed 25 per cent dilution of the Jute Packaging Materials Act (JPMA) of 1987, IJMA has written to the Prime Minister on Monday, requesting him to turn down the dilution proposal.
Earlier, IJMA had sought the intervention of West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and two Union ministers hailing from West Bengal — Mamata Banerjee and Pranab Mukherjee — on this matter.
The proposal to 25 per cent dilution in jute reservation was made by the Standing Advisory Committee (SAC) chaired by the Union textiles secretary. The committee was of the view that raw jute production for 2009-10 would be 90 lakh bales and this was inadequate to meet the requirement of government procurement agencies for packaging for food grains and sugar.
The Union textiles ministry is understood to have sent a note recently to the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), upholding the move of the committee on the dilution issue. The CCEA is expected to meet shortly to take up the issue.
The ministry was of the view that while determining the policy of reservation for jute for any particular year, the Centre has to consider the factors mentioned in Section 3(1) of JPMA without considering any extraneous factors.
Based on the estimates of SAC and taking into account the factors mentioned in Section 3(1) of JPMA, the textiles ministry felt that the jute industry would not be able to meet the demand for jute bags if 100 per cent reservation under JPMA was continued for this financial year.
The ministry felt that the demand for jute bags has increased substantially while production capacity has remained more or less stagnant and the crop size was likely to be on the downside this year.
However, IJMA has pointed out that the SAC has not taken into account the estimates of the Union agriculture ministry which had indicated that the total availability of raw jute will be 110 lakh bales for 2009-10.
IJMA was of the view that the availability of 110 lakh bales of raw jute would be adequate to meet the required consumption of jute goods in 2009-10.
The jute association felt the progressive increase in arrivals of new crop this year has eased the supply position of raw jute.
The jute industry is now in a position to meet the entire requirement of government procuring agencies, the requirement being pegged at 14 lakh bales for this year’s kharif marketing season.
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