(MENAFN- KNN India) Unhappy with the reduction in custom duty on raw silk from 15 per cent to 10 per cent, Congress Leader Veerappa Moily today said that with the government's decision to reduce the customs duty on raw silk from 15 per cent to 10 per cent has resulted in the sharp fall in the prices of raw silk and cocoons which has badly affected the sericulture farmers.
"There is a sharp fall in prices of raw silk; sharp fall in prices of cocoons in the cocoon markets; reduction in prices of cocoons and raw silk, which directly resulted in large-scale uprooting of mulberry gardens; and loss of capital invested by reelers and sericulturists, which has affected all the sericulture farmers and they are on the streets," Moily said while speaking in the Lok Sabha today.
He further said that, "I do not know what provoked them suddenly to reduce it from 15 per cent to 10 per cent. My appeal to the Government is that it can be restored to 15 per cent if not 30 per cent."
Moily, training guns towards Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, said that, "the balance was maintained between the weavers and the sericulturists, but all of a sudden the Finance Minister, in his Finance Bill of 2015, again reversed the process and he said than order to promote 'Make in India', I propose to reduce the basic customs duty on raw silk from 15 per cent to 10 per cent."
"This has really shocked the sericulture farmers. How can such a decision be taken at the cost of the farmers as against 'Make in India'?", he added raising concerns for the sericulturists in Karnataka.
Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram had increased the custom duty on raw silk to 15 per cent from 5 per cent in the Union Budget 2013-14. (KNN Bureau)
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