EEPC demands duty concession

 After the recent customs duty hike on steel, the engineering exporters body has cautioned the government that India’s overseas shipment will get affected if exporters did not get duty drawback from the government.

 Duty drawback is the paying back of a duty, previously paid on exporting excisable articles or on re-exporting foreign goods.

The Engineering exporters' body, EEPC India has said the government should increase duty drawback rates to make up for the recent hike in basic customs duty on certain steel products.

“We are not against support to the domestic industry against imports from countries like China, but then, with the domestic prices being influenced by such levies, the drawback rates should  simultaneously go up,” EEPC chairman  Anupam Shah said.

The current duty drawback  is around 1.9 per cent. The government has raised the import duty on both flat and long products by 2.5 per cent. However, no duty drawback rates were increased.

“On an average, steel accounts for about 50 per cent  of total value of engineering products, the duty drawback rates for engineering products should have been raised by 1.25 per cent  at the bare minimum,” Shah said.

“As it is , steel prices in India are among the highest in the world. It is for this reason it is attracting imports and it also for this reason the Indian steel industry wishes to block imports so that it can raise prices further. This goes against steel user industry and affects over national welfare adversely,” EEPC India said in its representation to the government. 

The exports of engineering products, one of the essential items in India’s export basket with  24  per  cent share in the overall merchandise shipments, fell by  10.5 per cent to $5.4 billion in May 2015 over May 2014.

“Going forward, it looks difficult to achieve the last year’s level if immediate measures are not taken to help exporters,” Shah said.