Govt. imposes anti-dumping duty on N-Butyl Alcohol

• The government has imposed an anti-dumping duty of up to $149 on imports of a chemical used in fermentation of sugar from five countries, including the European Union, Malaysia, Singapore and the U.S.
• The Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), in a notification, said Normal Butanol, or N-Butyl Alcohol, exported from the EU, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa and the U.S. was found to be “below normal value, thus establishing dumping of the same”.
• The Directorate General of Anti-dumping and Allied Duties (DGAD) in its investigation into the import of N-Butyl Alcohol from the five nations had stated that “the domestic industry continues to suffer material injury on account of dumped imports and it is necessary to recommend imposition of anti-dumping duty on imports of subject goods from the subject countries”.
• An anti-dumping duty of $46.27 a tonne was imposed on imports from the EU while the same from Singapore and South Africa was put at $35.66 and $13.24, respectively.
• For N-Butyl Alcohol imports from the U.S., the government went for an anti-dumping duty of $24.16.
• Exports of the N-Butyl Alcohol by Petronas Chemicals Marketing from Malaysia will attract anti-dumping duty of $51.42 and the same by BASF Petronas $26.59. Any other exports originating from Malaysia will face $149.31 anti-dumping duty.
• The anti-dumping duty imposed under this notification shall be effective for five years
• Imports of the chemical from the five countries have risen to 53.195 tonnes in 2013-14 from 19,297 tonnes in 2010-11.

About Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC)
Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) is a part of the Department of Revenue under the Ministry of Finance, Government of India. It deals with the tasks of formulation of policy concerning levy and collection of Customs & Central Excise duties and Service Tax, prevention of smuggling and administration of matters relating to Customs, Central Excise, Service Tax and Narcotics to the extent under CBEC's purview.
About Directorate General of Anti-dumping and Allied Duties (DGAD)
Anti dumping and anti subsidies & countervailing measures in India are administered by the Directorate General of Anti dumping and Allied Duties (DGAD) functioning in the Dept. of Commerce in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry
About Anti dumping duty:

• Anti dumping duty is imposed on dumping. Dumping is, in general, a situation of international price discrimination, where the price of a product when sold in the importing country is less than the price of that product in the market of the exporting country.
• Dumping is an unfair trade practice which can have a distortive effect on international trade.
• The consequent economic and financial impact of the dumped imports on the concerned Indian industry can be demonstrated by: decline in output, loss of sales, loss of market share, Reduced profits, Decline in productivity, Decline in capacity utilization, Reduced return on investments, Price effects, adverse effects on cash flow, inventories, employment, wages, growth, investments, ability to raise capital, etc.
• Anti-dumping is a measure to rectify the situation arising out of the dumping of goods and its trade distortive effect.
• The use of anti-dumping measure as an instrument of fair competition is permitted by the WTO.
• Anti-dumping is an instrument for ensuring fair trade and is not a measure of protection per se for the domestic industry.

By: Vishal