Publish Date : 02.10.20

Doubling custom duty on pesticide formulations will hurt farmers: CropLife India

CropLife India, an association of 15 R&D driven crop science companies, is concerned by a proposal within the government seeking to double Custom Duty on agrochemical formulations to 20 percent. “This would severely hurt the interests of the farmers of the country, in terms of increasing cost of farming and non-availability of the newer innovative products,” the association said. According to CropLife India, it is clear that the idea of "doubling" custom duty is being proposed based on misleading information; in the last couple of months, about the "huge" formulation imports in the country.

However, the actual data of import proves otherwise. Asitava Sen, Chief Executive Officer, CropLife India said, “The idea is ill-conceived and not based on ground realities. Imported pesticide formulations constitute INR 1800 crore, which is hardly 20 percent of total agrochemicals imported in India. The proposal to enhance custom duty on formulated products will set to reduce "Ease Of Doing Business", highlight uncertainty of Indian policies and send out wrong signals to investors in this sector; apart from not achieving either any significant financial benefit for the exchequer or increasing local manufacturing; while hurting the farmer interest”.