THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala has asked the Centre to review and re-examine its decision to exclude rubber growers in the state from the Union Government’s rubber subsidy scheme. Meeting Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in New Delhi on Monday, state Finance Minister K M Mani urged the Centre to provide `500 crore to provide assistance to rubber growers.
Mani also demanded that the rubber growers in the state should be included in the subsidy scheme. Mani said the Union Finance Minister had promised to look into the issue later.
To assist rubber growers in the state in view of the fall in rubber prices, the state government will launch a price support subsidy scheme. Mani demanded that the Centre should provide `00 crore from its Price Stabilisation Fund to assist the farmers.
He pointed out that the state government had already earmarked up to `500 crore for the price support subsidy scheme. The attempt was to implement the scheme in a way that would ensure `150 per kg for rubber to farmers. The minister pointed out that the scheme would be sufficient to provide support to only 25 pc of the rubber procured in the state. Getting central support was essential to ensure that the benefits of the new scheme reached rubber growers across the state. Mani further said that he had raised Kerala’s demand of increasing the rubber subsidy amount from R25,000 to 50,000.
Mani, who is the chairman of the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers on GST, will present the concerns and apprehensions of various states regarding Goods and Services Tax, before select committee of Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
