In India, the plastic industry was regarded as a ‘sunrise industry’ in the Seventh Plan document. Since then, it has emerged as Rs 55,000 crore industry, employing directly and indirectly over 3 million people and has achieved an export turnover of Rs 13,000 crore.

The industry provides vital inputs to all key sectors of the economy like agriculture, infrastructure, healthcare and consumer goods. The industry offers cost effective products that help improve quality of life for common man. One of the most globalised sectors of Indian industry, the plastic industry’s paramount role in meeting India’s developmental challenges is widely acknowledged.

In recognition of its crucial role in India’s growth and future potential, the Government of India had sought industry’s inputs / suggestions for drawing up a roadmap for further development of the industry. The forward path suggested by the industry several times in the past had been duly incorporated in numerous government reports like the report submitted to Planning Commission by the Task Force on Petrochemicals for the 11th Five Year Plan.

Ironically, each and every government report on plastics industry emphasised the necessity of a facilitative policy regime as a pre-requisite to industry’s sustained high growth. The latest in the long list of reports is the National Petrochemical Policy released by the Department of Chemicals & Petrochemicals, which highlights the dire need of a policy regime conducive to growth.

Indian industry faces several handicaps in the area of capital cost, feedstock prices, and cost of electricity, local taxes and tariffs as compared to the producers in US, Europe and other parts of Asia. Despite this, import duty for polymers and articles of plastics were drastically slashed in rapid succession.

Mr. Rakesh Joshi

Joshi Enterprise

Manager, Joshi Enterprise
Dispur, India

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