‘Import duty hike on coking coal will be additional burden’

Arun Kumar Jagatramka, Chairman and Managing director, Gujarat NRE Coke Ltd.

“The Finance Minister has very well addressed the issue of coal linkages for power plants and the need for more coal washeries. He has brought parity in Customs duty on imports of all kind of coal to a uniform 2.5 per cent, which would be a great relief from harassment at the ports. However, the increase in import duty of coking coal from 0 to 2.5 per cent would be an added burden of input cost for steel industry as coking coal and met coke would be costlier. The domestic metallurgical coke industry is happy that the finance minister has kept their interest in mind as the import duty of met coke has also been raised similar to coking coal to 2.5 per cent. The industry was however expecting the import duty on met coke to be 5 per cent and hopes that the finance minister would look into it next time.”

“Overall, the budget has been pro-growth with a social face and the Finance Minister has tried to do things possible under the present circumstances and the prevailing challenges. The budget has aimed at bringing in rationalisation in taxation and a certainty in tax administration, notable being doing away with retrospective taxation in future. The focus on infrastructure both in national highways and in power sector as well as in urban infrastructure through smart cities are a much welcome step which has the potential to fuel future growth.”

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