The Hindu Business Line : Steel Ministry may seek waiver of import duty on scrap

The Minister for Steel, Mr Ram Vilas Paswan, and the Steel Secretary, Mr. R. S. Pandey, addressing the Steel Consumers’ Council of the Ministry, in the Capital on Monday. —

Our Bureau

New Delhi, Aug. 20 The Steel Ministry is planning to write to the Finance Ministry to review the five per cent Customs duty on imported scrap.

Speaking to newspersons after the Steel Consumers Council meeting on Monday, Mr Ram Vilas Paswan, Minister for Steel, Chemicals and Fertilisers, said: “Secondary steel producers have made a demand for abolishing the five per cent import duty on imported scrap as there is already a four per cent countervailing duty (CVD) on scrap, barring a few exceptions The matter will be taken up with the Finance Ministry soon.”

He also said that the positioning of stockyards of SAIL and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL) would be reviewed to ensure the availability of steel across the country.

“SAIL has already established a dealership network of around 1,100 outlets in 602 districts across the country and is in the process of adding a couple more dealers,” he added.

“This would ensure that steel is available without any problem. Further, the products that it produces are available at the same price in district headquarters as well as the State Capital.”

The Ministry has also revised the estimates that would be incurred on the expansion and modernisation plan of SAIL.

“Earlier, we had estimated an investment of around Rs 40,000 crore but now we envisage an investment of around Rs 49,556 crore. The expansion is expected to by completed by 2010 and the capacity is expected to touch 26.18 million tonnes,” Mr Paswan said.

RINL is also expanding its capacity at an investment close to Rs 9,000 crore.

The Minister said that strict monitoring of implementation of the expansion programme was being done to ensure timely completion.

Earlier, delivering the inaugural address, Mr Paswan said that in order to contain the prices, steel producers have been requested by the committee to keep a check on the ex-factory prices of long products.

They have been urged to balance their exports keeping in view the domestic demand. “Though steel is a deregulated sector, a price monitoring committee has been set up with officials, steel producers and consumers as members to keep a watch over the price movements. We have also asked the producers to export steel at domestic market prices so that there is no artificial demand-supply gap here,” he said.

The Minister regretted that some producers are exporting steel at less than market price, leading to shortage of supply for the domestic consumers.

Meanwhile, the Government has said that South Korean steel giant Posco’s proposed 12-million-tonne steel plant in Orissa is expected to become operational by end of 2011 – almost a year behind schedule.

“The project is now making some headway and production should start by the end of 2011,” Steel Secretary Mr R.S. Pandey said.

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