Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Tuesday, Mar 02, 2004
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Tuesday, Mar 02, 2004 |
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Industry & Economy
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Coke & Metalurgical Coke Coimbatore engg sector hails duty cut on coke R.Y. Narayanan
Coimbatore , March 1 THE Government's decision of withdrawing the Duty Entitlement Pass Book (DEPB) scheme and Duty Draw Back (DDB) concessions and slashing duty on coke and pig iron has brought some cheer to engineering industries in Coimbatore region, which have been facing acute shortage and price escalation of key raw materials for more than a year. However, they complained that the price of at least one raw material, pig iron, had again spurted in the past week; they have asked the Centre to import the main raw materials, such as coke and iron, to help the SSI sector. Mr G. Rajendran, President, Southern India Engineering Manufacturers' Association, Coimbatore, said the Government had suspended export incentive schemes such as DEPB and DDB temporarily for all categories of steel with a view to dissuade their export. It had also brought down the customs duty on coke to zero and pig iron and coal to 5 per cent to enable the steel manufacturers to get inputs at a lower rate. In a letter to the Prime Minister, Mr Rajendran welcomed the decision to reduce the excise duty from 16 per cent to 8 per cent but felt it would be more beneficial if it was implemented immediately rather than on a refundable basis. He also wanted that subsidy to the extent of Rs 80 crore to Rs 90 crore annually given for SSI units be extended to SMEs, too, so that the end-users were benefited. He pointed out that even now, the pig iron producers were not committing themselves on rate and supply schedule of pig iron. There was an increase of Rs 4,500 per tonne in the basic price of pig iron in the last one week. Mr Tee. Narayanaswami, President, Coimbatore District Small Industries Association, suggested that the Centre control the pricing system of steel producers since the prices of pig iron and steel were going up despite Government announcements. He wanted the Government to import enough quantity of coke and iron to meet their shortage in the domestic market.
More Stories on : Coke & Metalurgical Coke | Engineering | Tamil Nadu
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