Indian government to set up committee to correct import duties

The Indian government will soon set up a panel to correct the import duty structure, which causes injury to the Indian industry, sources report. Higher duties on raw materials and lower on the finished products is reportedly an obstacle for manufacturing of finished products. Indian sources report that the committee will be headed by a member of the Planning Commission and will be notified soon by the PMO. It will include senior officials from both the Commerce Ministry and Finance Ministry. A number of sectors including steel, pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals and consumer goods suffer from the higher import duties on intermediate products. In the steel industry, while a 7.5 percent duty is applied on intermediate products like HR coil and CR coil, finished steel attracts an import duty of 5%. India's Commerce Secretary Mr Menon indicated that anomalies in the import duties should be corrected immediately, since India is a country, which has a number of free trade agreements with its neighbors.