(a) whether there is any proposal of introducing any tax on imported goods to save distress sale of the local products and steps taken to deal with dumping of imported goods;
(b) if so, whether the Government have identified such items; and
(c) if so, the details of the same?
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY ( SHRI RAJIV PRATAP RUDY )
(a) to (c) : All imports in the country are subject to levy of customs duties. The imports are subject to basic custom duty, additional duty of customs which is equivalent to excise duty payable on domestically produced similar goods and special additional duty. In addition, duties in form of anti-dumping duty and safeguard duty can also be imposed on specific commodities based on investigations and findings of the Designated Authority.
Imports are being closely monitored and the Government is determined to ensure through appropriate use of tariff and other mechanisms that imports do not cause any serious detriment or injury to the domestic producers. Towards that end, import duties on a number of items, where increases in imports were noticed, have already been increased, for example, duty on rice has been increased from 0% to upto 80%, on maize from 0% to 50%, on apples from 35% to 50%, on wheat raised to 50%, on coconut, copra, tea and coffee has been raised from 35% to 70%. The import duty on various refined edible oils excepting soyabean oil has been raised upto 85%. Similarly, the import duty on crude palmolein oil has been raised to 65% and on other crude edible oils excepting soyabean oil duty has been raised upto 75%.