West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today urged the Union Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee to reconsider the Centre's decision to impose excise duty of 10% on jute packaging products.

"The excise duty will deal a severe blow to West Bengal's jute industry which is already under threat from synthetic packaging materials," Bhattacharjee said in a letter to Mukherjee.

The letter, released to the press, said that imposition of excise duty on jute products, "though not declared in your budget statement, will increase cost of jute packaging products and make the industry even more unviable threatening lives of millions of jute growers and workers engaged in the industry."

The chief minister urged Mukherjee to reconsider the decision for the survival of the sector.