Govt mulls duty hike on aluminium after industry raises alarm over dumping

The government is considering a proposal to increase import duty on aluminium with a view to supporting domestic players, sources said.

The industry has demanded an increase in import duties on aluminium scrap and primary aluminium amid a high growth in inwards shipments of these items, they said.  

Vedanta Group Chairman Anil Agarwal, too, has asked the government to increase import duty on primary and scrap aluminium to 10 per cent, noting that India was becoming a dumping ground amid ongoing tariff war between the US and China.  

Currently, the basic customs duty on aluminium scrap and primary aluminium is 2.5 per cent and 7.5 per cent, respectively.

The industry has also urged the government to consider imposing minimum import price and some kind of quota on the imports for the user industry. 
 

Total production of aluminium in India is about 4 million tonnes and consumption is about 3.6 million tonnes.

The Aluminium Association of India (AAI) has urged the government to increase the duty on imports of aluminium scrap.

The demand comes in the wake of the US imposing 10 per cent duty on certain aluminium products. China, too, has raised the duties.
 

The association has said that an estimated 30 per cent of China's aluminium scrap imports come from the US.

In this regard, a delegation of the association had met Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) Secretary Ramesh Abhishek.

Aluminium is required by industries like automobile, construction, consumer goods, etc.
 

All these industries are growing in India and the country is producing sufficient amount of required metal domestically, AAI has said.

As per estimates, during the first quarter of the current fiscal, imports of aluminium scrap increased to 36,000 tonnes from 16,000 tonnes.