The Federation of Telangana Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FTCCI) has appealed to the Centre to re-examine the 20% duty on rice exports.
The duty on brown and white rice other than basmati and parboiled varieties covers nearly 60% of the country’s total exports. With the levy, Indian rice shipments will become uncompetitive in the global market and buyers will shift to Thailand and Vietnam, FTCCI said in representation to Union Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman and Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal.
Stating that there are several hundred varieties of non-basmati rice in the country with the price of some “much higher than basmati rice. Some non-basmati variants sell for $700-1,400 per tonne. Levying a duty on these variants will prove very expensive. It will have many adverse outcomes for team India in the long term,” FTCCI President Anil Agarwal said.
