Why levy of countervailing duty is important?

Countervailing duty or additional duty of customs is levied to offset the disadvantage to like Indian goods due to high excise duty on their inputs.

Imposition of a countervailing duty is an attempt to bring the imported price to its true market price, and thus provides a level playing field to the importing country's producers.

This additional duty will not be included in the assessable value for levy of education cess on imported goods. Manufacturers will be able to take credit of this additional duty for payment of excise duty on their finished products.