NEW DELHI, Nov 27: The paper industry has called for long term policies supported with fiscal incentives and tax benefits for development of captive forest plantation.

The industry has warned that there would be stagnation and progressive closure of wood-based paper industries in the coming years if such policies are not formulated immediately.

Speaking at a press conference organised by the Indian Paper Makers Association (IPMA) on Thursday, IPMA chairman and deputy managing director of J K Corp Harsh Pati Singhania said the revised national forest policy laid down in 1988 has not been conducive to the integrated development of industrial plantation and forest-based industry.

The policy directs forest based industries to meet their raw material requirements themselves without allocating any land for industrial plantation, he lamented.

Singhania said the single biggest constraint facing the Rs 9,000 crore paper industry is the non-availability and cost of raw material, wood. He said the industry possesses potential to create large-scale plants with the latest technology but for the non-availability of raw material.

"To achieve international competitiveness, these constraints have to be removed. The solution is to enact a progressive raw material policy", he added.

Vikram Thapar, joint managing director of Ballarpur Industries Ltd stressed on the need for a industry friendly forest policy. A government-industry partnership will enable the country to achieve self-sufficiency, he said.

Thapar said India has 31 million hectares of degraded forest land, part of which can be used for the integrated development of technology-based plantations and forest based activities. "Even if two million hectares can be effectively managed, it would be sufficient procuring for raw material for the industry", he added.

Vice-president (plantations) of ITC-Bhadrachalam Paperboards, Piare Lal, who headed a recent study mission to Indonesia and Malaysia on the sustained fibre availability for paper industry, said that the mission found that pragmatic long term policies which promoted industrial plantations have enabled these countries to become international players in short time.

Lal said in Indonesia 64 million hectares out of 113 million hectares of forest area has been earmarked for production forestry. Further, a multi-million dollar reforestation fund has been created to support private sector initiatives for industrial plantations on government-owned forest lands, he added.

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