Government hints at dumping duty on Chinese electrical goods

MUMBAI: The government is considering imposing some duty on electrical equipment imports from China to save domestic manufacturers from cheaper shipments, Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises Minister Praful Patel said on Monday.

"The Ministry of Heavy Industries believes that some kind of support (is) needed to the domestic electrical equipment manufacturers in terms of tariff barriers against dumping (mostly by Chinese companies)," Patel told reporters on the sidelines of an IEEMA (Indian Electrical & Electronics Manufacturers Association) function here.

"We have taken up the issue of import duty (on dumping) with the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Industry & Commerce and the Planning Commission. We need to find some ways and means to support the electric equipment makers in terms of some kind of tariff barriers," Patel said.

The domestic electrical equipment industry faces several challenges which can be met by concerted action by all the stakeholders and policy interventions at the central and state levels, he maintained.

The size of the domestic market in power generation equipment market is expected to reach USD 25-30 billion by 2022 from USD 5.7 billion in 2011, IEEMA President Ramesh Chandak said. But to achieve this all stakeholders need to pro -actively collaborate and take coordinated action, he added.

Calling upon the industry to focus on the next generation reforms in the power transmission and distribution sector, Patel said, "While post-1991 we focused on power generation, the time has come to address the concerns on evacuation and distribution of power such as land acquisition and transmission and distribution losses".