• PAGE ONE
• INDEX
• HOME

`Lead acid battery units hit by cheap imports'

Our Bureau

KOLKATA, April 30

THE lead acid battery industry, accounting for an estimated turnover of Rs 2,000 crore, has been severely hit by cheap imports and import duty anomalies between raw material and finished products, according to Mr S. Chand, Vice-President of the Indian Ba ttery Manufacturers' Association (IBMA).

Addressing newspersons here, Mr Chand said that figures available from the Union Commerce Ministry suggested massive imports of cheap batteries. ``What till yesterday was considered as perceived threat has become a reality now,'' he said.

The Ministry has imposed a temporary anti-dumping duty on the battery imports from China, Japan and Korea from this month. The final order is expected in October and it would given retrospective effect from April this year.

Import duty anomalies are much too pronounced, he said. Import duty on finished batteries and import duty on lead and separators, which comprised 50 per cent of the cost, are the same at 35 per cent. Moreover, there is a 16 per cent excise duty. ``The im porters also pay a countervailing duty to cover the excise duty but their base price is lower. So the problem of same duty is having a cascading effect on our final product price,'' he said.

IBMA has urged the Centre to stipulate at least a 20 per cent duty differential between the raw material and the finished product.

IBMA claimed that it had lost six per cent of its automotive market to cheap imports. The market loss is 11 per cent in four-wheelers, 12 per cent in cars, 25 per cent in heavy commercial vehicles and 11 per cent in tractors. ``According to Government fi gures, 2.59 lakh automotive batteries were imported during the period April to December 2000. In the industrial sector, it is worse. We have lost 30 per cent of the market. About 19 lakh industrial batteries have been imported,'' Mr Chand said.

The Indian players had invested about Rs 1,000 crore in the last four-five years to set up manufacturing facilities for UPS (uninterrupted power supply) batteries needed in the IT sector, he said. Manufacturers were experiencing a more or less similar tr end in this sector too.

The situation was worse as far as imports from SAARC countries were concerned because the Union Government was yet to impose anti-dumping duty. As it is, imports from SAARC countries attracted a lower duty, that is, less than 35 per cent.