Kochi: The Cashew Manufacturers and Exporters Association has urged the central government to set up a special export zone for the cashew industry at Kollam and ensure fresh working capital to revive the crisis-ridden sector.
 Addressing a press conference here, association president Baldwin Austin and general secretary A Abdul Salam called for urgent steps to bail out the stricken industry.
Blaming the state governments tax regime for the present crisis, they said the revised tax structure has pushed the industry into the red that condemned about 3.5 lakh employees to an uncertain future. The situation will lead to a flight of cashew-processing units to neighbouring states that have a friendlier tax regime, unless the government intervenes to address the problem.
They said the United Democratic Front government has reversed the previous governments decision to halve the 8-per cent tax on the cashew industry. While the budget has not recommended any tax revision, industrialists are harassed by commercial tax officials who argue that the tax relief introduced by the Left Democratic Front government has ceased following expiry of the notification period. We have brought this to the notice of the state finance minister, Austin said.
Hailing the central governments export policy, the association pointed out that it is encouraging for the cashew industry, which has an annual export earning of Rs 3,000 crore. During the initial phase of economic liberalisation, a number of units suffered huge losses due to the fall in prices and many industrialists had to face legal action, Austin said. He urged financial institutions to extend soft loans for cashew-processing units.
The association called on the state government to close down the Cashew Special Office in Kollam, which was set up during the quota regime. With the dismantling of the quota system, cashew has been brought under the open general licence and there is no monopoly procurement. As such, the special office has no significance. The government is losing money on salaries for the officials who have no work in the office, he said.
He urged the government to relocate the joint directorate office from Thiruvananthapuram to Kollam. Welcoming the Supreme Court order to return the cashew factories taken over by the government, he said the units under the cashew corporation can be run profitably.
Austin called for inducting industrialists into the director board of the corporation. The association also appealed to the state labour minister to convene a meeting of trade unions and cashew industrialists to finalise the wages, daily allowance and bonus of the workers.
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