Anti Dumping Duty on Sodium Nitrate - Resurrected
PROVISIONAL anti dumping duty was imposed on Sodium Nitrate, falling under Chapter 28 or 31 of the First Schedule to the Customs Tariff Act, originating in, or exported from the European Union, the People's Republic of China, Ukraine and Korea RP, by Notification No. 14/2014-Cus (ADD) dated 19.03.2014.
The Notification emphatically declared:
The anti-dumping duty imposed under this notification shall be levied for a period not exceeding six months (unless revoked, amended or superseded earlier) from the date of publication of this notification .
The six months period expired on 19.09.2014 and it was not amended. So the notification virtually died on 19.09.2014 and there is no anti dumping duty on this product after that date. But with CBEC, notifications do not simply die like that - they can be resurrected.
Now five months after its expiry, Government has imposed definitive anti dumping duty on the product for a period of five years from the date of imposition of the provisional anti-dumping duty, that is, the 19th March, 2014.
No problem, if somebody in the Board forgets to extend it in March 2019 - Government thinks it has the power to bring back to life dead notifications and impose anti dumping duty with retrospective effect. Surprisingly even some consultants believe that when Courts frustrate the good intentions of the benign government, there is no option but to illegally resurrect the Anti Dumping notifications in the larger interests of the Nation!
Notification No., Dated: February 10, 2015