The Hindu Business Line : Ministry, steel SSI meeting inconclusive

THE meeting of State small-scale industries corporations convened by the Ministry of Steel to look into the issue of adequate supply of steel to the small sector remained inconclusive on Wednesday with the producers and SSI corporations blaming each other on various counts.

It has now been decided that the steel industry coordination committee for the SSI sector which has consumer representatives as its members would again take up the issue.

Today's meeting was following an earlier move by the Steel Ministry when it had asked all the state SSI corporations to prepare an estimate of the total steel requirements of the SSI units located in their respective states.

The meeting was attended by officials from the Ministry of Steel, Ministry of Small Scale Industries as well as representatives from most of the State SSI corporations. Officials from the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) and Tisco represented the primary steel producers body, the Indian Steel Alliance (ISA).

While the SSI corporations complained that the producers were not supplying the required quantities of the particular grades, the producers pointed out that they were being paid in time. In fact, the ISA representatives have also mentioned that there are cases where the producers are forced to stop supply because of non-payments, sources said.

The issue of subsidy for the small sector, which is funded by the Joint Plant Committee (JPC), also came up. The SSI corporations complained that the subsidy component was hardly ever released in time and this resulted in delayed payments to suppliers.

As the meeting could not arrive at a conclusion on how to ensure adequate steel supplies to the small sector, it was decided that the steel industry coordination committee would take up the issue later this month.