Ahmedabad: All India Plastics Manufacturers' Association (AIPMA), India's apex plastic industry body expressed hope here today that ahead of the Union budget, the Centre will accept their three major demands, including higher import duty on Chinese products.

AIPMA president Rituraj Gupta said that the plastic industry has high hopes from the next Union budget.

"In our recent representation to the Centre, we have put forward three of our main demands. We want excise duty relief for the plastic industry. We also want significant increase in import duty on plastic goods imported from China. It should be increased from the current five per cent to 15 per cent," Gupta said during his interaction with reporters at a press conference here.

"Our third demand is related to Goods and Service Tax (GST). We have requested that it should not be more than 18 to 20 per cent for the plastic industry. The government has accepted all our demands and we are hopeful that it will be reflected in the next union budget," Gupta said.

He announced that AIPMA plans to promote the use of plastic products in a big way to help the central government implement various initiatives like 'Swachh Bharat Abhiyan', 'More Crop Per Drop', 'Housing for All' and smart city projects.

"We are interested in the successful implementation of various central government programmes. We believe that success of initiatives like 'Clean India' and 'Make In India', relies greatly on how we use plastic, which is one of the best alternative materials," Gupta said.