According to The Economic Times article published on May 5, 2023, the rejection rate of the commerce ministry's recommendations to impose anti-dumping and countervailing duties on different imported products by the finance ministry has gone up substantially between September 2020 to October 2022, according to a report. The report of the 'Centre for Digital Economy' also said that the rejections are almost invariably without giving any reasons.
From September 2020 to October 2022, as many as 70 anti-dumping and countervailing duties recommendations of the commerce ministry were rejected out of 120.
From 1991 to 2020, only seven recommendations were turned down by the finance ministry out of 1,052 cases recommended by the commerce ministry's investigation arm -- Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR).
DGTR is a quasi-judicial body which deals with anti-dumping duty, safeguard duty, and countervailing duty. These duties are trade remedy measures, provided under an agreement of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to its member countries.
They are used to provide a level-playing field to the domestic industry in case of dumping of goods, a significant increase in imports and subsidised imports.
"From September 2020, the Ministry of Finance has rejected a large number of recommendations made by the DGTR. The rejections of the recommendations by DGTR are almost invariably without giving any reason. The Government merely stated that it has been decided not to accept the recommendation. No reasons whatsoever have been given," it said.
