Fearing that countries like China may take advantage of low import duty to dump petrochemical products in India, a top trade body has sent an SOS to the government seeking hike in customs duty to protect the domestic industry and jobs. The Petrochemicals and Plastic Committee of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) has written to Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers seeking hike in customs or import duty on polypropylene and polyethylene - vastly used in automobiles, packaging, agriculture, electronics and medical devices as well as in construction - from 7.5 per cent to 12.5 per cent. India is short on petrochemicals. Taking into account the capacity additions announced so far, the projected deficit of polypropylene and polyethylene is likely to reach 12 million tonne per annum or USD 12 billion at current price levels by 2030. While the domestic Indian producers are caught in the cyclical nature of the business, China is scaling up petrochemicals ...