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India imposes anti-dumping duty on rice, maize, sorghum, fruits

The government has imposed 50 to 80 per cent duty on the import of rice, maize, sorghum, millet and spelt, (a type of feed grain) hitherto under zero duty, besides increasing customs duty on the import of fresh fruits.

Union Consumers Affairs and Public Distribution Minister Shanta Kumar said in New Delhi today that import of rice in husk (paddy or rough), husked (brown) rice, semi-milled or wholly-milled rice and broken rice will attract 80 per cent customs duty.

Maize (corn) seed, grain sorghum, millet and spelt have been brought under 50 per cent import duty net from zero duty, while import duty for fresh grapes has been increased from 25 per cent to 35 per cent and for apples from 35 per cent to 50 per cent.

However, the customs duty on the import of almonds in shell has been reduced from Rs 55 per kg to Rs 35 per kg, shelled almonds from Rs 100 per kg to Rs 65 per kg and for grape fruit and prunes from 35 per cent to 25 per cent.

The minister said the customs duty on rice imports had been imposed to discourage dumping of the commodity in the country. In the past three-four months as much as 56,000 tonnes of rice was imported, Shanta Kumar said.

India already had excessive foodgrains stocks, much above the buffer norms, he added.

On April 1, wheat stocks were 12.8 million tonnes against the buffer norms of 4 million tonnes and the rice stocks estimated at 15.2 million tonnes against the norms of 11.8 million tonnes.

The stock position of these commodities is likely to touch ever high peaks on July 1 as the country is expecting bumper wheat and paddy crops, Shanta Kumar said.

According to official estimates, stock position for wheat will be 28.8 million tonnes against buffer norms of 14.3 million tonnes and that of rice will be 13.1 million tonnes against the norms of 10 million tonnes.

The minister said the government, faced with prospects of rotting of stocks and costlier carry-over mechanism, was seriously thinking to disposing of the excessive stocks either by the way of barter system (foodgrains for work) or through exports.

He admitted that prohibitive economic cost incurred by the Food Corporation of India, or FCI, the agency handling the procurement of wheat and rice, being much higher than the prevailing market price has led to diversion of stocks meant for public distribution system, or PDS, to the open market.

It also eaten into the food subsidy of Rs 90 billion meant for only below poverty line, or BPL, families.

The minister maintained that increase in imports duty on sugar had helped the sugar industry to pay off Rs 1.97 billion of the total Rs 5.10 billion arrears due to the farmers in the country.

The same was true in the case of increase in import duty on the edible oils that discouraged imports and helped increase oilseeds production, besides sustaining the domestic industry.

UNI

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