The prices have gone up by more than Rs 10,000 per tonne for almost all the grades of commodity plastics -- which amounts to nearly 35 per cent rise -- within a span of three months. ``It amounts to raising the fund requirement for the purchase of same quantity of raw materials to the tune of 40 per cent which is next to impossible in the present financial crisis,'' the All India Plastic Manufacturers' Association (AIPMA) has said in a statement, adding that "we fail to understand the general behaviour of the raw material producers. We know that prices will be decided by the market forces."

``Raw material producers are having 35 per cent tariff protection for many years and their increase in prices every now andthen is severely hitting the processing units since processors are unable to plan out programme of production and pass on cost escalation to final consumer,'' it said.

The plastic industry has been passing through a difficult phase on account of recessionary trend which has been prevailing for the past two years coupled with highest taxes from all sides. ``Almost 80 per cent of the plastic processing units are now working to hardly 40 per cent of their installed capacity. The domestic raw material manufacturers are always taking undue advantage of the international situation,'' it said.

The international market is firming up and this has given a golden opportunity to indigenous raw material producers to hike their prices due to the fact that there is now control on fixation of prices on raw materials from the government side, it said.

"We have been appealing to the raw material producers to take into confidence trade bodies like AIPMA while revising their prices. We feel they should discuss suchimportant matter with AIPMA and other trade bodies," the statement said.