Countervailing Duty Rules, 1995 — anti-subsidy investigation guide

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The Customs Tariff (Identification, Assessment and Collection of Countervailing Duty on Subsidized Articles and for Determination of Injury) Rules, 1995 govern identification and measurement of countervailable subsidies, injury and investigation procedure. The 2024 amendments added a new-shipper-review mechanism.

Legal architecture

The Tariff Act section supplies the statutory power; the Rules supply the investigation machinery; DGTR creates the evidentiary record and findings; the Ministry of Finance issues the fiscal measure where the law requires a duty notification. These stages should not be collapsed. A DGTR initiation is not a duty, and a final finding is not automatically identical to the customs notification ultimately collected at the border.

As of October 2026, DGTR operates the SETU unified filing portal and maintains case-specific pages for initiations, questionnaires, registered interested parties, hearings, disclosure statements and findings. The June 2026 Compendium should be the starting point for rule text, followed by later notifications/trade notices and the live case docket.

Procedure map

1. 1. Original anti-subsidy investigation
2. 2. Provisional CVD
3. 3. Government/exporter questionnaires
4. 4. Subsidy-benefit calculation
5. 5. Injury and causal link
6. 6. Sunset review
7. 7. New shipper review

At each stage, preserve both confidential and non-confidential treatment correctly. The investigation record should separately identify data source, period of investigation, injury period, product scope, interested-party standing, verification history and the calculation methodology used.

Case law

Worked example

A domestic producer alleges a foreign exporter receives concessional government loans. The application must identify the programme, financial contribution, specificity and benefit, while separately proving injury and causation. State ownership by itself is not the subsidy calculation.

Evidence checklist

• Product under consideration / product control number methodology.
• Domestic industry standing and production data.
• Import volume/value source and transaction-level data where required.
• Price-effect and injury indicator schedules.
• Causation and non-attribution analysis.
• Questionnaire responses and deficiency letters.
• Verification exhibits and disclosure comments.
• Final finding, Ministry of Finance notification and review/sunset calendar.

Professional traps

• Using an outdated rule compilation rather than the current DGTR Compendium plus later amendments.
• Assuming investigation initiation means a levy is already payable.
• Ignoring product scope/PCN disputes that can change the entire measure.
• Mixing dumping, subsidy and safeguard standards.
• Missing the separate Ministry of Finance notification collected by Customs.
• Failing to calendar review/sunset/extension deadlines.

Primary-source trail