Mumbai: JK Tire Industries is looking to revise its role structure in the upcoming budget, saying it will provide a level playing field for local tire manufacturers.

“We are probably the only country in the world that has implemented a reverse tariff structure where the cost of importing raw materials is almost three times the cost of importing finished products.”

“Under the current tariff regime, the tariff on imported raw materials (mainly rubber) is 20%, while the tariff on finished tires is only 7.7%.

This situation has to change, said Arun K Bajoria, President and Director, JK Tyre Industries, here over the weekend, Finance Minister Arunn Jaitley He said, “We have decided to revise the reverse tariff regime in the budget.” Steps will be taken to rectify the situation.

On another expectation from the budget, he expressed hope that the Finance Minister will ensure economic recovery.

In order to protect the domestic rubber farmers, the government maintains high import duties on rubber.

When asked about sales, he said the removal of the 4% excise duty will have some impact on OEM sales, but overall sales are expected to grow by 20% this fiscal year.

As for crude oil prices, a key ingredient in natural rubber and synthetic tires, continue to fall, he said he expects tire prices to drop about 2% in the near term.

Raghupati Singhania led the company to meet its raw material requirements by importing about 30% natural rubber, of which 68% raw material is natural rubber.

Currently, OEMs account for 25% of sales, with the rest coming from alternative markets.

In terms of capacity utilization, he expressed hope that it is currently at 80% and will rise further as the economy improves.

Bajoria said that the company’s new plant in Chennai with an investment of Rs 150 crore is expected to be completed by the end of this fiscal and the capacity will double to 32,000 radial tires per day.

Exports are expected to increase by 15 percent this fiscal, the company added.

The Delhi-based company is 90 Operating in 9 countries in India 1 plant in Mexico 1 plant in Mexico Produces more than 20,000 plants 10,000 tires annually.