UK-based PG Paper Company Ltd today urged the government not to impose anti-dumping duty on coated paper.
Imposition of the duty would impact American and European paper suppliers to India that are producing the product in an environmentally friendly way, the company said.
Coated paper is primarily used for printing of magazines, catalogues, books and manuals, calendars, brochures, labels and flexible packaging.
"It seems unfair to punish the manufactures by imposing a further levy on top of the 10 per cent import duty that is already in place on coated papers. Lightweight coated paper is currently not manufactured in India at all and is no threat to the local manufacturing industry," Poonam Gupta, the CEO of PG Paper Company, said in a statement.
She also said that the paper industry competes on natural resources like water and forestry which is already scarce in India.
The company would be soon be writing to Finance Minister Arun Jaitely and Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu requesting not to impose any restrictive duty on the imports of coated paper from the US and Europe.
The Directorate General of Anti-dumping and Allied Duties (DGAD), under the commerce ministry, is undertaking an anti- dumping investigation on imports of coated paper from China, the EU and the US to protect domestic industry from cheap imports.
Gupta said that Indian economy is growing at a fast pace and environmentally sustainable growth in the paper industry would further boost the country's economic growth.
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 aimed at ensuring fair trading practises and creating a level-playing field for domestic producers with regard to foreign producers and exporters.
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