Duty revisions after Oct to come with sunset clause, says FM Sitharaman

Government will rationalise customs duties after consultations, says finance minister

Duty change notifications post October 1 will come with a sunset clause after the government meets stakeholders in April on rationalising customs and anti-dumping duty, said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday.

Sitharaman, during a discussion on the Finance Bill in the Rajya Sabha, said she had announced in the budget that the government would rationalise any duty brought against dumping over the years.

Anti-dumping duty notifications announced over decades did not have an end date and continue. The government will meet stakeholders from April 1 to review such duties.

“And if any such decades old, anti-dumping duty or any other notification as regards increasing or reducing duties is felt necessary, we shall take it up, but from now, we have brought in a system whereby any such notification, which is brought out after consultation should come with a deadline.

“So that say, two years after the notification, March of that year, there should be be a review, and if it is felt necessary it can continue, if it's not necessary it should end rather than leaving it at the loose end,” Sitharaman said.

A new system will streamline such duties from October 1. “The Finance Bill has some amendments towards achieving reduction in compliance, and aimed at ease of doing business,” she said.

Rs 30,000 crore to be released to states GST compensation due to states for April 2020 to January 2021 is Rs 2.17 trillion, and back-to-back loans worth Rs 1.1 trillion have been released to states to meet the compensation shortfall.

The central government will release another Rs 30,000 crore from the compensation fund in a few days to states.

“Therefore, compensation, likely due to states and union territories in the year, 2020-21 is Rs 77,636 crores, this is the overall for all states,” she said.