• Government has imposed anti-dumping duty  on imports of jute and its products from Bangladesh and Nepal to protect domestic industry.
• The anti-dumping duty has been imposed for five years, a revenue department notification said.
• The import restrictive levy has been imposed on jute yarn/twine, Hessian fabric and jute sacking bags in “all forms and specifications”.
• Based on complaint of local players, the Directorate General of Anti-Dumping and Allied Duties (DGAD had initiated a probe into imports of the products in 2015.
• In its final order, issued in October last year, the DGAD had come to the conclusion that there is dumping of goods and the imports were “undercutting and suppressing the prices of the domestic industry”.
• “Performance of domestic industry has deteriorated in the terms of profitability return on investments and cash flow (and) injury to domestic industry has been caused by dumped imports,” it had said while recommending imposition of definitive anti-dumping duty on imports in “order to remove injury” to the domestic industry.
• The revenue department “after considering” the final findings of the DGAD imposed the anti-dumping duty.
• West Bengal is the major player in the jute industry, with 3.5-4 lakh people being employed in the sector.

Anti Dumping Duty:

• An anti-dumping duty is a protectionist tariff that a domestic government imposes on foreign imports that it believes are priced below fair market value.
• Dumping is a process where a company exports a product at a price lower than the price it normally charges on its own home market.
• To protect local businesses and markets, many countries impose stiff duties on products they believe are being dumped in their national market.