Assocham Urges Government To Bring Down Customs Duty On Copper Concentrate

New Delhi: Industry physique Assocham has urged the federal government to deliver down the customs responsibility on copper focus to zero from the present 2.5 per cent, so as to present a level-playing subject to all stakeholders.This transfer, it has mentioned, will even assist the business compete with imports of value-added copper merchandise from free commerce settlement (FTA) nations underneath nil responsibility.Copper focus is the essential uncooked materials utilized by the copper business."Given the non-availability of copper concentrate in India, there is no economic rationale to continue with import duty on copper concentrate and it is submitted to reduce customs duty on copper concentrate from 2.5 per cent to nil. This will enable us to have a level playing field and compete with imports of value added copper products, from FTA countries under Nil duty," based on the pre-budget solutions by Assocham.The Indian copper business imports 95 per cent of the copper consider account of its restricted availability within the nation. The home availability is merely 5 per cent of the whole requirement.The current customs responsibility on import of copper concentrates is 2.5 per cent whereas the refined copper is being more and more imported into India at nil responsibility underneath the Free Trade Agreements, making it a transparent case of an inverted responsibility construction.Most main economies resembling Japan, China, Thailand and Malaysia do not need enough home concentrates however these nations permit free import of copper focus to make sure availability of this key metallic for worth addition of their nation.This has affected level-playing subject for Indian smelters as the associated fee construction of smelters in these nations are decrease on account of zero import responsibility on copper focus.Sourcing of copper concentrates by India from some main nations is already threatened because of exports restrictions from provider nations like Indonesia, an FTA accomplice nation of India. This leaves India with restricted choice to supply underneath FTA route from Chile which has long run commitments (as much as 90 per cent of their manufacturing) to nations like Japan, China and others who've invested in Copper mines in these nations.Unfortunately, other than Chile and Indonesia, a lot of the copper focus surplus nations usually are not coated underneath FTAs with India.No home downstream business can be adversely impacted by responsibility discount as it's a place to begin of the refined copper worth chain for bulk of the business and can present a much-needed aid to the business which is affected by extraordinarily hostile tendencies in its worth drivers.Indian refined copper business wants all of the help from the federal government in sourcing its uncooked materials and therefore it makes immense financial sense to exempt it from customs responsibility.