Minimum Import Price on S-PVC Resin To Make Pipes, Fitting, Cables Plastics Costlier
Imports priced at US$0.766 per kg or below will now require a DGFT import licence in addition to payment of import duties for six months.
Chennai: The minimum import price (MIP) on Suspension Grade Polyvinyl Chloride (S-PVC) Resin, will increase the consumer prices of pipes, fittings, cables and many other plastic products and hit the MSME manufacturers of these products. It will also increase India's annual import bill by about US$200 million.
The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has restricted the imports and imposed a minimum import price (MIP) of $0.766 per kg on Suspension Grade Polyvinyl Chloride (S-PVC) Resin, a key raw material used to make pipes, fittings, cables and many other plastic products.
Imports priced at US$0.766 per kg or below will now require a DGFT import licence in addition to payment of import duties for six months.
According to GTRI, India imported about US$1.63 billion worth of the product in FY2026 from countries including China, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and the United States.
The average import price from these countries ranged between US$0.65 and US$0.75 per kg.
S-PVC imports attract 7.5% Basic Customs Duty and 0.75% Social Welfare Surcharge, taking total customs duty (excluding IGST) to 8.25%. Consequently, the minimum import price translates into a minimum landed cost of about US$0.87 per kg after 5% IGST. This will lead to higher domestic PVC resin prices rather than lower imports.
India imports about 64% of its S-PVC resin requirement. Of the 4.5 MMT of annual consumption, domestic production is only 1.7 MMT by Reliance Industries, Chemplast Sanmar and DCM Shriram. About 3.0 MMT of S-PVC resin will continue to be imported.
This can increase India's annual import bill by about $200 million.
Domestic resin manufacturers are expected to benefit from stronger pricing power and improved margins as higher import costs raise the import parity price.
However, downstream manufacturers, particularly, thousands of MSMEs producing PVC pipes, fittings, cables, conduits, films, footwear and medical products, are likely to face higher raw material costs. They will have to either absorb lower margins or pass on the increase to customers.
