Mills in Bengal directly employ about 2.5 lakh workers, while 40 lakh farmers are engaged in producing the raw material in the state, and political parties are reaching out to them to secure their support in the jute belt comprising parts of several Lok Sabha constituencies in Hooghly, North 24 Parganas and Howrah districts.
India is contemplating stricter duties on jute and jute products to curb the influx of inexpensive, subsidised goods from Bangladesh, which is undercutting it's local manufacturers, according to a senior Indian official. The combination of low-cost imports and elevated raw material expenses serves as a disincentive and is cited as a contributing factor to the decline in
Indian Jute Mills Association (IJMA) is in favour of imposition of countervailing duties on imports with imposition of anti dumping duty having little effect because of subsidy enhancements for exporters from these countries