Centre assures duty hike on titanium dioxide

In a move that could provide a lifeline to the Kerala Minerals and Metals Ltd (KMML), the Union government has promised to review and potentially hike the import duty on titanium dioxide. Following a high-level meeting led by MPs N.K. Premachandran and K. Radhakrishnan with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal, the Centre agreed to consider reinstating the anti-dumping duty along with increasing the import duty.

The delegation, which included KMML trade union leaders, highlighted how the surge of Chinese imports has destabilised the domestic market, leading to a financial crunch for the public sector undertaking.

Following discussions between a trade union delegation and the Union Finance Minister in previous years, the Union government had successfully imposed an anti-dumping duty on titanium dioxide imported from China to protect domestic manufacturers. However, this protective measure faced a legal setback when the Calcutta High Court stayed the order, citing procedural irregularities in how the duty was implemented. This judicial intervention forced the Union government to subsequently withdraw the anti-dumping duty, leaving companies like the KMML vulnerable to cheap foreign imports once again.

Legal context

During the recently held meeting, this legal context was presented to the Union Finance Minister, who has now provided an assurance that both the reinstatement of the anti-dumping duty and a general increase in import taxes will be considered to rectify past issues and support the domestic industry.

The KMML is India’s only manufacturing facility that produces high-quality rutile-grade titanium dioxide using advanced Chloride Route technology. To sustain and expand this specialised production, Industries Ministers of Kerala and Tamil Nadu had recently held discussions to explore the possibilities of a collaboration to extract mineral sand from the Tamil Nadu coastline for high-value processing. The project is to combine Tamil Nadu’s vast mineral resource availability with the KMML’s technical expertise. A proposal was also made to source ilmenite, the essential raw material for titanium dioxide, from Tamil Nadu to secure a steady supply chain for the KMML.