No anti-dumping duty on fibre board from 4 countries: Revenue dept

The government has decided not to impose anti-dumping duty on imports of a certain type of fibre board, used to make furniture and cabinets, from Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia, as per an office memorandum of the Department of Revenue.

The commerce ministry's investigation arm DGTR had in April recommended imposition of the duty for five years on 'plain medium density fibre board having thickness less than 6mm' after concluding in a probe that the domestic industry was impacted due to dumping of the goods from these countries.

The Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) suggested duty in the range of USD 227.47 to USD 258.42 944 per cubic metre. The probe was conducted following a complaint by domestic manufacturers.

While the directorate recommends these duties, the Department of Revenue takes the final decision to impose the same.

"The central government has decided not to impose the anti-dumping duty on imports of plain medium density fibre board having thickness less than 6mm originating in or exported from Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia...," the memorandum said.

In international trade parlance, dumping happens when a country or a firm exports an item at a price lower than the rate of that product in the domestic market.

Dumping impacts the price of that product in the importing country, hitting margins and profits of domestic manufacturing firms.

According to global trade norms, a country is allowed to impose tariffs on such dumped products to provide a level-playing field to domestic manufacturers.

The duty is imposed only after a thorough investigation by a quasi-judicial body, such as DGTR in India. The imposition of anti-dumping duty is permissible under the World Trade Organization (WTO) regime.