India may levy 14% duty on Chinese power equipment

India is likely to impose a 14% duty on power equipment imported from China, said Vilasrao Deshmukh, minister of the country's Ministry of Heavy Industries, on last Friday. Deshmukh said that the Ministry of Heavy Industries has asked the Ministry of Finance to levy the 14% import duty to protect domestic power equipment makers.

The ministry stated that power equipment producers in India are facing increasingly fierce competition from Chinese power equipment makers as the Chinese rivals sell at quite low prices. Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd and Larsen &Toubro Ltd are the top two manufacturers of power generation equipment in India.