Government today imposed provisional safeguard duty of 20 per cent on import of certain categories of steel with a view to protect domestic producers from recent surge in inward shipments, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said today.
"This order (imposing duty) comes into effect immediately and a notification in this regard has been issued. This duty will be applicable for a period of 200 days, during which period the inquiry would be completed by Directorate General of Safeguards," the Minister said.
The duty will apply on specified categories of steel from all countries, he said, adding "over the last few weeks there has been a sudden surge of steel import into the country and therefore DG Safeguard has embarked upon an inquiry."
He said the power of imposing provisional duty, which was used occasionally in the past also, was invoked in view of sudden surge in imports and subsequent injury to domestic producers.
The duty, he said, will apply to all imports coming from anywhere in the world.
The DG Safeguards earlier recommended imposition of a 20 per cent safeguard duty on certain steel products to protect interests of the domestic industry. The proposal was approved by the Board of Safeguards.
Safeguard duty is a WTO-compatible temporary measure that is brought in for a certain timeframe to avert any damage to a country's domestic industry from cheap imports.
During the examination of applications of major steel producers like SAIL, Essar Steel and JSW Steel, the DG Safeguards had found "prima-facie increased imports (of certain kinds of steel) have caused or are threatening to cause serious injury to domestic producers..."
Domestic steel producers had complained of a surge in imports of steel products like hot-rolled steel and other variants from China, Korea, Japan and Russia.
The three players, representing 50 per cent of the domestic production, had moved DGS for imposition of the levy on imports of hot-rolled flat products of non-alloy and other alloy steel in coils of width of 600 mm or more for four years.
Central Board of Excise and Customs in a notification said a provisional safeguard duty has been imposed on hot rolled flat products of non-alloy and other alloy steel in coils of a width of 600 mm or more.
