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The government may impose anti-dumping duty for three years on a chemical mainly used in rubber industry and imported from China and Japan.
The duty was recommended by the commerce ministry's investigation arm DGAD that has concluded in its probe that 'Resorcinol' was exported by these two countries below its normal value which has resulted in dumping.
The domestic industry has suffered material injury due to the dumping of the product, the Directorate General of Antidumping and Allied Duties (DGAD) has said in a notification.
The duty, if imposed, would help in guarding domestic players from cheap imports from these countries.
While DGAD recommends the duty, finance ministry imposes the same.
The authority "recommends imposition of definitive anti- dumping duties on the imports" from China and Japan and the duty payable would be the difference between the landed value of the chemical and $5,461 per tonne.
Atul Ltd had filed an application before the DGAD for imposition of the levy.
As per the notification, imports of the chemical has increased to 3,343 tonne in 2015-16 from 2,470 tonne in 2012- 13.
It has also stated that the growth of the domestic industry cannot be termed as positive as profits as well as return on capital employed (ROCE) remained negative during 2015-16, the period of investigation, despite a significant increase in the demand.
Countries carry out anti-dumping probe to determine whether their domestic industries have been hurt because of a surge in cheap imports.
As a counter measure, they impose duties under the multilateral regime of WTO.
The duty is also aimed at ensuring fair trading practises and creating a level-playing field for domestic producers with regard to foreign producers and exporters.
India has already imposed anti-dumping duty on several products to check cheap imports from countries including China.
The country has imposed the duty on as many as 98 products, as on December 27 last year, imported from China.
