The revenue department has enforced anti-dumping duty for five years on a Chinese chemical used in making detergents to guard domestic players from cheap imports from the neighboring country.
Apart from the death sentence, 20 convicts were awarded imprisonment.
The duty in the range of USD 163.90-207.72 per tonne of the chemical will remain in force for five years (unless revoked, superseded or amended earlier), said the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) in a notification.
DGTR, the investigation arm of the commerce ministry, had conducted the probe on the complaint of Gujarat Credo Mineral Industries and Chemicals India which supposed injury to the domestic industry on account of the cheap import from China.
In its final findings, DGTR said there were a "positive dumping margin" as well as material injury to the domestic industry, caused by the dumped imports, and recommended imposition of the definitive anti-dumping levy.
Detergent grade Zeolite is primarily water softener compounds, used to remove calcium and magnesium ions from hard water. Soft water requires less soap for the same cleaning effort, as soap is not wasted mopping up calcium ions. It is mainly used as a builder in detergents.
Countries carry out an anti-dumping probe to determine whether their domestic industries have been hurt because of a surge in below-cost imports.
As a countermeasure, they impose duties under the multilateral regime of WTO.
The duty is also aimed at ensuring fair trading practices and creating a level playing field for domestic producers with regard to foreign producers and exporters.
India has already imposed anti-dumping duty on several products to check cheap imports from countries including China with which India has a major concern of widening trade deficit.
The deficit has increased to USD 63.12 billion in 2017-18 from USD 51.11 billion in the previous fiscal
