The Hindu Business Line : Paswan to meet steel producers tomorrow

Meeting agenda
Govt to consider imposing 5% import duty on cheaper shipments and scrapping exports levy of up to 15 %.
Measures to guarantee timely completion of various steel projects

Mr Ram Vilas Paswan, Minister for Chemicals, Fertilizers and Steel (file photo).

Our Bureau

New Delhi, Oct. 15 The Minister for Steel, Chemicals and Fertilisers, Mr Ram Vilas Paswan, has said that he will meet steel producers on Friday to consider changes in the current duty structure on the product.

Speaking to newspersons on the sidelines of a fertiliser event, he said, “Steel companies cooperated with us by cutting prices when global prices were high. Now that prices have crashed, we will also consider measures to help them.”

Major industry players such as Tata, SAIL, Essar Steel, and Ispat have been demanding changes in the duty structure. The Minister said that the Government would consider imposing five per cent import duty on cheaper shipments and scrapping exports levy of up to 15 per cent.

“The players have individually met me and have suggested scrapping existing export duty and imposing 5 per cent import duty, amid falling international steel prices. We will consider their demands at the meeting,” he said.

Mr Paswan said that the global financial crisis may lead to the domestic steel production taking a hit due to the slump in demand. “Measures to guarantee timely completion of various steel projects will be also discussed in the meeting,” he added.

Steel prices in India have dipped by nearly 30 per cent over the last two months due to a slowdown in demand from the construction sector. For the fertiliser sector, the Minister said that the Fertiliser Ministry has requested the Finance Ministry to provide it about Rs 65,000 crore in supplementary grants for disbursal of subsidies.

“We have sought about Rs 65,000 crore in supplementary budget as the next phase of fertiliser subsidies,” he said, after receiving Rs 31.83 crore as dividend from National Fertilisers Ltd (NFL). The Minister said fertiliser subsidies would be only in cash, and assured manufacturers that there would not be any problems for them. The Centre subsidises the cost of fertilisers as there is a huge gap between selling price and production cost.

Mr Paswan would meet the Petroleum Minister, Mr Murli Deora, next week to sort out operationalisation problems as fertiliser units are yet to get gas on a priority basis as decided by the Empowered Group of Ministers

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