The commerce and industry minister said that there has been a complaint by aluminium industry about dumping of the commodity.He was replying to a question about the government’s plan to increase import duty on aluminium.The commerce ministry is in favour of hiking import duty on aluminium with a view to support domestic manufacturers, Union Minister Suresh Prabhu has said.
“That is a proposal to protect our domestic industry. The proposal is under examination and we support the proposal,” Prabhu told PTI.
The industry has demanded increase in import duties on aluminium scrap and primary aluminium amid a high growth in inward shipments of these items. Currently, the basic customs duty on aluminium scrap and primary aluminium is 2.5 per cent and 7.5 per cent, respectively.
Besides this, domestic players have also urged to impose 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.