New duty on imports likely

The commerce department has urged the finance ministry to impose border adjustment tax (BAT) on imported goods. This has been done to counterbalance the impact of levies such as electricity duty, clean energy cess, levies on fuel and royalty that are outside the ambit of goods and services tax (GST).

The commerce secretary, Anup Wadhawan, opined “Such taxes (which are not part of GST), while resulting in an increase in the cost of production of domestic goods, also place them on an unequal footing vis-a-vis imports… rendering our exports uncompetitive.”