19/4/07 (India eNews.com) -   A Rajya Sabha MP from Kerala has sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's intervention in withdrawing the government's decision to reduce import duty on palm oil as the move would harm the interests of coconut farmers in the state.

In a letter to Manmohan Singh, P.R. Rajan, a Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) MP, alleged that the decision to reduce duty on crude palm oil and refined oil by 10 percent was 'thoughtless and unilateral'.

The government had cut the duty on palm oils, both crude and refined, by 10 percentage points to lower prices and help tame inflation. It was reduced to 57.5 percent from 67.5 percent.

Pointing out that Kerala MPs, cutting across party lines, had asked for revoking the decision, Rajan said: 'But it seems that your government is more interested in heeding to the pressures from the stock market and the traders' lobby than addressing the concerns of the poor farmers here.

'Such a situation is highly condemnable as this government is built with the votes of thousands of farmers who wanted a change in the liberal economic policies that were followed by your predecessor - the NDA (National Democratic Alliance) government.'

He added that the decision would further deteriorate the condition of coconut farmers who had been hit by the fall in the price of crops, and would lead to more suicides.

The state's coconut cultivation covers 900,000 hectares. The average annual fall in the coconut price has been 9 percent in the last decade.