NTC Imposes Anti-Dumping Duty on Lead Pencils

National Tariff Commission (NTC) has imposed ‘Definitive Antidumping Duties’ on dumped imports of lead pencils into Pakistan coming from China.

Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has received a request from the NTC for the collection of the said duty at the import stage.

The NTC decision will have a direct impact on the importers of lead pencils from China. The commercial importers of this item will have to pay additional taxes in the form of ‘Definitive Antidumping Duties’ on already imported or new imports of lead pencils from China. This ‘Definitive Antidumping Duty’ is like a customs duty imposed to discourage imports and dumping of a certain product locally manufactured in Pakistan.

A report has been issued by the NTC on the issue of imposition of the said duty on imports of lead pencils from China. This report is related to the final determination of duty.

NTC is an autonomous investigation authority of the Government of Pakistan on trade and tariff matters and it administers trade remedy laws against dumped and subsidized imports of goods hurting Pakistan’s domestic industry.

NTC report said that the definitive anti-dumping duties levied on import of the investigated product would be in addition to other taxes and duties leviable on its imports under the standard law. The definitive antidumping duty will be collected in the same manner as customs duty under the Customs Act, 1969 (IV of 1969) and would be deposited in Commission’s Non-lapsable PLD account No. 187 with Federal Treasury Office, Islamabad.

The National Tariff Commission (the “Commission”) with regards to the Anti Dumping Duties Act, 2015 (the “Act”) and the Anti-Dumping Duties Rules, 2001 (the “Rules”) is responsible to conduct anti-dumping investigations for imposition of anti-dumping duties to offset injurious impact of dumped imports on domestic industry and to ensure fair competition, and to the WTO’s Agreement on Implementation of Article VI of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 (the “Antidumping Agreement”).

In the past, the Commission had imposed provisional antidumping duties ranging from 4.55 percent to 51.39 percent on the investigated product vide official gazette (extraordinary) dated June 06, 2018 for a period of four months.

In terms of Section 55(2) of the Act, if definitive anti-dumping duty is lower than the amount of provisionally determined antidumping duty, the difference shall be refunded by the Commission. Therefore, importers of the investigated product may request for refund of the provisional anti-dumping duty (if any) on imports of the investigated product from China to the extent of the difference between the rate of definitive anti-dumping duty and the rate of provisional anti-dumping duty to the Secretary, National Tariff Commission within a period of thirty days of the publication of notice of this determination.