Plastic industry may take legal route

After chief minister Devendra Fadnavis rejected demand to revoke the ban on plastic items, the industry is now considering to take the legal route.

“Our legal department is studying the matter. We are waiting for few more days to understand the stand of the government,” said Hiten Bheda, President, All India Plastics Manufacturers’ Association (AIPMA). Various associations have been constantly in touch with the Maharashtra government but they have not responded to the industry’s distressed call, claimed Bheda. On Wednesday, the government has assured that it will work with all the stakeholders in the plastic industry.

This ban is expected to cost the state a loss of Rs 800 crore in terms of GST revenue, according to data of AIPMA. “Post demonetisation and GST, our industry was just recovering and now this ban. In order to tackle the issue of plastic littering, ban is not an answer.” Most of the machineries that are used by the manufacturers cannot be used to develop any other product. “There are very few machineries that can be tweaked to manufacture other plastic products. But these modifications would again need huge investments,”Bheda added.

This ban will also impact other industries like beverage, medical, fast food, retail chains, wholesalers, garment, packaging, dairy industry, etc, as they are depended on plastic to package their produce. According to source, the state government might consider setting up centres where banned products can be dumped. "Yet again, this is just an idea which again would need large number of resources to implement." At present, the state announced the ban but the association feels that the state does not know how to implement this ban in a large scale. The ban on plastic bags, thermocols items and other disposable plastic items, will come into effect from March 18.