The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has sought reducing customs duty on Naphtha from 5 per cent to 2.5 per cent in the coming Budget 2020-2021.
The most commonly used feedstock naphtha attracts customs duty of 5 per cent which is higher than the 2-2.5 per cent customs duty on primary petrochemicals and polymer intermediates made from it, a CII statement said.
"This is an anomalous situation which needs to be corrected by reducing customs duty on the main feedstock naphtha from 5 per cent to 2.5 per cent," CII said.
CII also said that the basic customs duty on Feedstock Methyl alcohol should be reduced to 0 per cent as this will promote growth of downstream chemical industry products.
A specific exemption for Acetic Acid should be inserted according to CII. The association said that Acetic acid is an important organic chemical and critical building block/raw material for various downstream industrial chemicals like ethyl acetate, acetic anhydride, poly vinyl acetate among others.