In a bid to check rampant circumvention of antidumping duty on imported stainless steel, India’s Ministry of Steel has proposed hiking basic customs duty on the product to10 percent from 7.5 percent in the forthcoming national budget, a senior ministry official said on Monday, December 12.
The official said that the ministry had made the recommendation for hiking the basic customs duty to the Ministry of Finance.
Although an increase to 10 percent was suggested, a higher level of 15 percent might also be considered once the latest data on total steel imports into the country is collected from various government agencies, the steel ministry official said.
The hike would be effected through the national budget to be placed before the Indian Parliament on February 01, 2017, he added.
In fact, the proposal to increase the basic customs duty on stainless steel was first mooted in April this year but this was kept in abeyance awaiting the conclusion of antidumping investigations and the levy of an antidumping duty on the product, the official said.
However, it was noted that, despite the imposition of an antidumping duty, there has been rampant circumvention of the duty by importers misdeclaring the category of the imported product to avoid the antidumping levy, the official said.