The Budget has left a bitter taste in the mouth of apple growers. With their profits sliding year after year due to a volatile market, sharp increase in input costs, and heavy import of apple from other countries, the growers feel the Budget has failed to address any of their concerns.
The biggest disappointment is the unchanged import duty on apple, which continues to be 50 per cent. We have been demanding for long that the duty be raised to 100 per cent. The unchanged duty will continue to hurt the domestic apple market, said Lokinder Bisht, president of the Progressive Growers Association.
Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur had also requested the Centre to increase the import duty on apple to 100 per cent during his meetings for consultation on the Union Budget in Delhi last month. Thakur had even made the suggestion that apple be excluded from the list of fruits and other commodities brought under the Open General License.