India has the most protected and least open economy in the world and its trade barrier is the highest in South Asia, discloses a recent study of the World Bank (WB).

The WB carried out the study on 'Trade policies in South Asia' and handed it over to the governments of five regional countries -- India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

"India's trade barriers are the highest in the region, the least transparent and the most complex," the WB report observed.

The average customs duty and

other protective taxes of India are highest in this region at 32.7 per cent, followed by Bangladesh at 26.4 per cent, Pakistan 18.2 per cent, Nepal 16.2 per cent and Sri Lanka at 12.5 per cent.

India's un-weighted average tariff in late 2002 was higher than that of all, except for one out of 105 developing countries. It was double or more than double the average tariff levels of other big developing countries like China, Brazil and Indonesia, the study said.

India introduced many industrial import tariffs, made antidumping a major activity and imposed specific duties to protect the textile and garment industry. It

also substantially increased tariffs to safeguard major agricultural products and agro-industries.

India is currently using six normal customs duty rates along with 41 protective tax slabs to discourage import. The protective import tax includes special additional duty, additional duty, luxury tax, anti-dumping duty, ad valoram tariff and so on.

Inclusive of specific duties, India has the largest number of tariff peaks in South Asia, mainly to protect its agriculture, textiles, garment and automobile sector, the WB

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"The recent indications that serious trade liberalisation is resuming appear to exclude agriculture. State trading monopolies still control the import and export of most agricultural commodities," the report said.

India's un-weighted average agriculture tariffs were exceeded by only South Korea, Turkey, and Morrocco.

Imports of 133 products in India, which are mainly food ingredients, powdered milk, cement, steel tubes, home appliances, gas cylinders, dry batteries and steel products, need a mandatory certification of Indian quality standard, which is a trade barrier, the WB report pointed out.

As far as anti-dumping duty is concerned, the WB's report said, India is one of the active users of it in the world. The most targeted country by far has been China, followed by European Union (EU), South Korea, Japan, US, Taiwan, Singapore, Russia, Thailand, Indonesia and Brazil.

India has been particularly active since 1993 in initiating antidumping cases, 300 of which have been completed so far, the report said.