BS reported that in the wake of incidents of evasion of anti dumping duty by companies, JSL Stainless Ltd said the government should protect the interests of the domestic industry by increasing the width of coils that attract duty to 1,500mm from 1,250mm.
Mr MP Rath DGM corporate of JSL said that "Despite the best intentions of the government to safeguard domestic industry, the very purpose of the duty has been defeated. This is so because of the unscrupulous practices being followed by certain sections of the industry to circumvent anti dumping duty by resorting to incorrect declarations.”

He added that not only is this causing considerable loss of revenue to the exchequer but it has also resulted in recurrence of injury to the domestic industry despite the anti dumping duty being in place.

At present, imported cold rolled flat products of stainless steel having a width ranging between 600mm and 1250mm attract anti dumping duty. The Indian stainless steel makers have been demanding to increase the width from 1,250mm to 1,500mm, which is pending with Directorate General, Anti Dumping.

Sources said if the width is not increased, circumvention of duty will be easier as 1,500mm width coils could be imported and slit to required width with meagre cost in India at the cost of the domestic industry.

Last month, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence had said that it had unearthed a nationwide racket allegedly involved in evading anti dumping duty of over INR 20 crore on steel coils, imported mostly from a Korean steel maker. A consignment of steel coils valued at over INR 8.5 crore imported from Korea was recently seized by the Ahmedabad DRI unit at the Kandla port in Gujarat for duty evasion.

(Sourced from BS)