Centre considering to shut down Tariff Commission
The Union government may close down the Tariff Commission, which was constituted in 1997 as an independent body to look into tariff-related issues and recommend appropriate levels of tariffs for different products and industries, two persons aware of the development said on condition of anonymity.
“The government has taken an in-principle decision in this regard and the same will be announced after a final call is taken on this matter,” one of them said, without explaining the rationale for such a decision.
A second person mentioned suggested the institution had “lost relevance” in the current context, and the move was part of the government’s exercise of de-duplication of work and reducing unnecessary laws and institutions.
The Union commerce and industry ministry, which is the administrative ministry for the Tariff Commission, did not respond to an e-mail query on this matter.
The current Tariff Commission has amalgamated the functions of organisations such as the erstwhile Tariff Board, the previous version of the tariff commission, and the Bureau of Industrial Costs & Prices (BICP).
The Tariff Board, an institution of the pre-independence period, advised the government on measures required for the protection of domestic industry. The previous tariff commission that was set up in 1951, by converting the Tariff Board, to protect Indian industry by checking duty variations and dumping of goods. It was wound up in 1976.
BICP was set up in 1970 to advise the government on various issues pertaining to cost reduction, improvement of industrial efficiency, and pricing problems in relation to industrial cost. With the economic liberalisation of in 1991, however, the government restructured BICP.
In order to resolve tariff issues and to meet the commitments made in the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the Tariff Commission was setup in September 1997 under the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), which was later renamed as the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) under the ministry of commerce and industry.