Industry body Assocham said that any move to hike import duty on power equipment will send negative signals to the country's trade partners.The chamber also said the move would affect investment climate in the key sectors.The gove?rnment's proposal to hike tariff on imports of some Chinese goods or impose a com?plete ban on specific items like power and telecom equipment will send negative signals to India's trade partners, it said. The indigenous power equip?ment makers have been dema?nding a levy of 14 percent on imported equip?ment, mainly from China, in order to provide them a cushion against local taxes. The move for import duty is being opposed by the private sector power producers. Giving some comfort to BHEL and L&T, the government has broa?dly agreed to a level-playing field for the domestic power equi??pment manufacturers agai?nst imports at zero or low duty. At present, 5 percent duty is levied on equipment imported for projects less than 1,000 MW capacity power projects.