Despite cuts, US apples & walnuts still face heavy duty

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The government may have removed additional import duty on apples, almonds and walnuts imported from America. But despite removal of additional import duty, heavy tax is applicable on import of these products. On Tuesday, the government said that despite the removal of additional duty, 50 percent import tax is applicable on apples and 100 percent on walnuts. Apart from this, there is also a tax of Rs 100 per kg on the import of almonds. .

The government clarified that to settle the trade disputes with America outside the World Trade Organization (WTO), the government has only removed the additional import duty imposed in 2019. The rest of the taxes are applicable as before.  In 2019,  the government imposed an additional tax of 20 percent on apples and walnuts imported from America, and an additional tax of Rs 20 per kg was also imposed on the import of almonds, which has now been removed.

It was also informed by the government that in return for removal of additional import duty on apples, walnuts and almonds imported from America by India, America also removed tax on steel and aluminum products exported from India to America. The government also said that Turkey, Chile, Iran, Italy and New Zealand were taking advantage of the additional import duty on American apples in India and the import of apples from these countries into India was increasing. Similarly, due to high import duty on American walnuts, import of walnuts from Chile and UAE to India had increased.

The government also said that to meet the domestic requirement of almonds, one has to depend on imports in large quantities, during the last three years, 2.33 lakh tonnes of almonds have been imported into the country while the domestic production was only 11 thousand tonnes. Is. In such a situation, removal of additional import duty on American almonds will increase the supply of almonds in the domestic market, which may bring down the prices.