India hikes customs duty on numerous US imported goods

India has hiked customs duty on several goods which are imported from the US. The Finance ministry, in a notification, said that the import duty on chickpeas and Bengal gram has been increased to 60 per cent, while on lentils has been hiked to 30 per cent. The duty on boric acid and binders for foundry moulds has been hiked to 7.5 per cent, while that on domestic reagent was raised to 10 per cent.

The other products on which duties have been hiked include certain kind of nuts, iron and steel products, apples, pears, flat rolled products of stainless steel, other alloy steel, tube and pipe fittings, and screws, bolts and rivets.

Finance Ministry said the import duty hike would be effective from August 04. The move was in retaliation to the duty hike by the US on certain steel and aluminium products which had tariff implication of 241 million US dollars on India. The duty hike by India would have equivalent tariff implications for the US.

However, no duty hike had been levied on motorcycles imported from the US. Earlier, India had submitted a revised list of 30 items to the WTO on which it proposed to raise customs duties by up to 50 per cent.