Leader of the Opposition and former Himachal chief minister Jai Ram Thakur hailed the decision of the Centre to provide relief to the apple growers by fixing the minimum import price of apples.
In a statement issued here on Tuesday, the BJP leader thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Central government and called it a historic initiative.
Now, apples will not come to India from abroad except Bhutan at a minimum price of less than Rs 50 per kg, he said, adding that these orders of the central government are going to be of great benefit to the orchardists of the apple state of Himachal Pradesh.
“The Central government has imposed a 50 percent import duty on apples, after which apples coming from abroad will be available at a minimum of Rs 75 per kg. Apples costing Rs 100 per kg for a quotation will now be available in India for Rs 150 after import duty,” he said.
The cost of transportation of the apple will be added separately, he added.
Detailing the apple production in the last 5 years, he said that in the year 2019-20 the total boxes were 3.58 crores (an average of 20 kg apple comes in a carton packaging ), 2.40 crore boxes in 2020-21, 3.22 boxes in 2021-22, 3.52 in 2022-23 Boxes have been produced.
“The state’s apple economy worth Rs 4500 crore will not suffer due to this,” he said.
The apples from Iran and Turkey transported through Afghanistan were breaking the back of the apple growers of Himachal Pradesh, without paying any import duty and under-invoicing, and will now be banned.
“Our party had raised this issue many times with the central government and today the centre has accepted this suggestion,” said Thakur.