Parties spar over rising apple import ahead of panchayat elections

Kuldeep Chauhan

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Tribune News Service

Shimla, December 19

The rising import of apple from foreign countries, mainly from the USA, has become an issue of discord between the Congress and the BJP ahead of panchayat elections. The Congress and BJP have entered into a blame game over the issue to corner each other.

The Congress blamed the BJP government at the Centre, saying Narendra Modi government had not hiked import duty on foreign apple, which had been promised by it during the last Lok Sabha elections.

On the contrary, the import of foreign apple had increased under the BJP regime at the Centre, affecting the profit margin of apple growers from Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, they claimed.

On the other hand, the state unit of the BJP blamed the previous UPA government and then Union Commerce Minister Anand Sharma for the rise in import of foreign apple.

It said they had signed the World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreement and virtually did nothing by way of imposing anti-trade barriers against imported apple or increasing import duty on foreign apple.

“We took up the issue with Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman recently,” said Narender Bragta, state BJP vice-president and former Horticulture Minister.

“She told us that the ministry had imposed curbs on apple import and restricted import only to Nhava Sheva International Container Terminal Private Limited port in Mumbai,” he added.

“The Congress, particularly then Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma, is the real culprit. They talked and did nothing to increase import duty on foreign apple,” he claimed.

Prakash Thakur, vice-chairperson of the HPMC and apple orchardist from Kotgarh, trashed Bragta’s charge. He said the phenomenal increase in apple import was the result of the NDA government giving a free run to importers.

He claimed that this had exposed the hypocrisy of the saffron party about encouraging swadeshi and make-in-India brands.

He cited data on import of apple from the USA, that had adversely affected apple from Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir in recent times and cut down on profit margins of growers.

A total of 1,30,300 metric tonnes of apple was imported from the USA in 2009 and 1,43,900 metric tonnes in 2010, an increase of 10.44 per cent, he added.

It jumped to 2,07,600 metric tonnes in 2011, an increase of 44.27 per cent, which decreased to 1,97,100 metric tonnes in 2012, he further said.

The quantity imported was 1,96,800 metric tonnes in 2013, which increased to 2,04,000 metric tonnes in 2014, he said.

Over 60 lakh cartons were imported from the USA till the first week of August this year, he further said. If imports from Iran, Chile, Europe and China were taken into account, the figure was much higher, he stated.

Thakur reminded Bragta of Modi’s Lok Sabha election promise to apple growers that the BJP would increase import duty by 100 per cent if it came to power. Import of apple had increased in the last two years, he added.