Govt may consider effect on industries before imposing duties

In her Budget speech, the finance minister said, "MSMEs and other user industries have been severely hit by a recent sharp rise in iron and steel prices

On the day the Union Budget was presented, the government raised import duties on a number of items to protect domestic industry, especially micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). The government also reduced import duties on a few items and suspended the levy of anti-dumping duty (ADD) and anti-subsidy countervailing duty (CVD) on some steel items to help MSMEs. The government also proposed to strengthen certain provisions relating to the levy of ADD and CVD.

As a rule, tinkering with the duty rate structure complicates tariffs, gives rise to classification disputes and encourages lobbying. That is why successive finance ministers moved