The Finance Ministry has imposed a definitive anti-dumping duty on certain optical fibre imports from China, South Korea and Indonesia to give some relief to the domestic optical fibre industry reeling under the adverse impact of low-price and low-quality imports. 

Based on the recommendations of the Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR), the revenue department has imposed an anti-dumping duty on dispersion unshifted Single-Mode Optical Fiber (SMOF) imports from China, South Korea and Indonesia. The anti-dumping duty ranges from $122 per kfkm to $857.23 per kfkm, with the commodity being traded in fkm (fibre kilometres).

This definitive anti-dumping duty will be valid for five years, the revenue department has said. 

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Optical fibres are used to transmit data in the form of light pulses. The fibres are bundled together to make optical fibre cables, which are used to transfer digital data signals in the form of light up to distances of hundreds of miles, with higher throughput rates than those achievable via electrical communication cables. 

Major consumption of SMOF is driven by 3G/4G/5G rollout by telecom companies, connectivity of gram panchayat and defence. SMOF facilitates transmission of a single-spatial mode of light as a carrier and is used for signal transmissions within certain bands. It is used for manufacture of optical fibre cables, including unit-tube and multi-tube stranded cables, tight buffer cables,armoured and unarmoured cables, ribbon cables and dry core cables.

SMOF is mainly applied to high data rate, long distance and access network transportation, therefore is mainly used in long haul, metro area network, CATV, optical access network and even over short distance network as applicable. 

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Birla Furukawa Fiber Optics Pvt Ltd had filed the petition seeking anti dumping probe on SMOF imports from China, South Korea and Indonesia. The petition was supported by Sterlite India Technologies and Corning India Technologies. The three producers cumulatively account for ninety percent of total Indian production of SMOF.

This revenue department move to impose anti-dumping duty on optical fibre comes at a time when India is in the midst of a massive digitisation drive (through rural outreach programme such as BharatNet) and private operators are also bolstering their network for 4G and 5G services. 

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