Cement Is Being Imported From Pakistan

LUDHIANA: Fifty six thousand metric tonnes of cement is being imported from Pakistan to ease out its price situation in the country, Union Minister for State for Industries Ashwani Kumar said on Friday.

Sixteen thousand metric tonnes of cement has already been received while the remaining consignment would be arriving here during the next two months, he said while addressing a function organised by the Ludhiana Management Association.

Talking to reporters, he said relations with Pakistan were being improved further and strong positive indications to the effect received from the new government in the neighbouring country.

India Likely To Lower Import Duties In Budget

India''s upcoming budget for 2008-09 may see some tweaking in the import duty structure, a top official of the Commerce and Industry Ministry said on Feb 16 in New Delhi. Import duties need to be cut in certain areas such as raw material and inverted duties. Inverted duties have to be addressed at this time as lot of trade agreements are coming, the official said. The inverted duty structure has to be dealt with now and we are looking at addressing it seriously. The Indian industry has also been pressing for a considerable reduction in the import duties for a long time now. The import duty reduction as a result of various bilateral agreements has adversely affected sectors such as textiles.

Other sectors like chemicals, electronics, auto components, tyres and electrical equipment have also been affected due to various bilateral trade agreements signed by India. The inverted duty structure impacts the domestic industry adversely as it has to pay a higher price for the raw material in terms of duty, the finished product on the other hand lands at lower duty and costs less. The government had in 2006 set up a committee under Anwar-ul Hoda to examine the inverted duty structure.

Import Of Sensitive Items Rise By 11.1% In Apr-Dec 2007

New Delhi: Along the lines of the high import growth rate on the back of an appreciating rupee vis-a-vis the US dollar, the country''s import of sensitive items being monitored by the Department of Commerce in view of their impact on domestic prices, also registered an increase of 11.1 per cent during the first three quarters of the current fiscal, as compared with the corresponding quarters of the last fiscal.

The total import of over 350 such sensitive goods for the period April-December 2007 has been Rs 20,589 crore as compared with Rs 18,532 crore during the corresponding period of last fiscal. The gross import of all commodity during the same period of the current fiscal was Rs 6,82,088 crore as compared with Rs 6,11,522 crore during the same period of the previous fiscal. Import of sensitive items constitutes 3 per cent of the gross imports during the last fiscal as well as the current fiscal period under review.

Imports of consumption items such as foodgrains, cotton and silk, alcoholic beverages, tea and coffee and industrial products such as automobile, products of small scale industry and rubber have shown marked rise during the period under review. While import of foodgrains rose from Rs 1,228.26 crore to Rs 1,475.52 crore in the corresponding period of the current fiscal, alcoholic beverages import rose from Rs 146.83 crore to Rs 182 crore.