Canada Hikes Duty On Indian Granite Exports

The Canadian government has significantly raised the anti-dumping duty on granite exports.

Sources said an interim duty had been levied some time ago. This was increased two days ago and is expected to hit granite exports severely.

Sources said the commerce ministrys commodity cell has initiated action to help exporters.

Ministry sources said they were informed of the increased duty on Thursday. Details of the case are not yet available. The heavy anti-dumping duty will dampen the ministrys efforts in seeking industry status for the granite industry. The ministry had set a target of Rs 1500 crore for granite exports in 1997-98.

 

The ministry is also keen to set up an exclusive export promotion council for granite, a proposal for which is likely to be submitted to the Cabinet.

With a sharp rise in the number of anti-dumping investigations against exporters, the commerce ministry has set up a new institutional arrangement to tackle such moves.

The commerce secretary has ordered each commodity and territorial division within the ministry to coordinate among themselves to help out exporters. Any action initiated will be in coordination with the trade policy division of the commerce ministry, the administrative ministry, the concerned export promotion council and the industry.

The granite industry is already facing several problems. Being a minor mineral, the leasing powers rest with the state governments. The industry is constantly hassled over the grant and renewal of leases and even 100 per cent export oriented units (EOUs) are prevented from operating quarries.

The leases, when granted, are of short duration and the royalty rates charged are high. Also, granite blocks are exported in large quantities damaging the industry.

100 per cent granite EOUs are not extended the benefit of duty-free imports of mining machinery for mechanising their quarries. The objections from the customs department is that as the quarry area cannot be custom bonded, there is a possibility of the material being sold in the domestic market.

However, under the Export Promotion Capital Goods scheme, a company can import mining machinery at concessional duty and can fulfil their export obligations by exporting blocks.