Senior government officials told Business Standard that the commerce and finance ministries would also discuss the possibility of either merging the Tariff Commission with the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion or dismantling the agency and attaching the smaller entities to various ministries.
Yet another option was to restructure the organisation in a way that it carried out research studies, which would help in policy formulation and assessing the impact of various initiatives of the government.
The officials said the options were put before Vijay Kelkar, advisor to the Finance Minister, and officials from the finance, commerce and industry ministries were slated to meet on Wednesday to deliberate on the matter.
They added that irrespective of the future of the Tariff Commission, the government was planning to merge the Safeguards Directorate, currently under the finance ministry, with the Directorate General of Anti-Dumping and Allied Duties (DGAD), a quasi-judicial body.
Officials said the government was of the opinion that the Safeguards Directorate, which had so far issued some 15 orders, rightfully belonged to the commerce ministry and should be merged with the DGAD.
An additional secretary-level officer was likely to head the combined entity, which would also deal with countervailing and anti-subsidy cases.
The DGAD has also initiated steps to monitor the dumping cases faced by Indian companies in foreign markets.
At present, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade is the nodal agency entrusted with the task. A Cabinet note to wind up the tariff panel was moved earlier but met with resistance from the finance ministry.
The North Block had proposed that the commission be remodelled on the lines of the United States International Trade Commission and should provide inputs to the anti-dumping authorities on issues such as calculating the injury margin for products under investigation and help the finance ministry work out a long term tariff policy.
