HC notice to Centre over Vedanta seeking rollback of duty

Press Trust of India  |  Madurai 

The Bench of the Madras here today ordered notice to the union government on a plea of the Vedanta group, seeking to quash the notification rescinding duty exemption for imports for five years, ending 2020, following introduction of GST.

Justice ordered the notice to the Centre and

Petitioner Janaki Ram submitted that after announcing the foreign trade policy for five years valid up to 2020, resciding of the duty concession cannot be done on imported raw materials under the Advanced Authorisation Scheme (AAS) with the duty-free entitlement, as the new GST has come into force.

He said Vedanta group had earned revenue of Rs 11.11 crore by exporting copper cathode, copper rods, phospheric acid and sulphuric acid and won government accolades for export achievements.

The company had also won the tag of a four-star export house by the government, he said.

The Vedanta group, which owns the Sterlite Copper Smelter Plant, was issued the AAS licence and had been exporting the finished goods also as per the scheme, he said.

As per the policy, duty-free concession was given to exporters who produced as well as traders who exported. Therefore, such a notification rescinding the duty concession was arbitrary and goes against the policy, he added.

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First Published: Fri, August 24 2018. 23:00 IST