Indian Steel Makers Pitch for Hiking Import Duty

NDTV reported that Indian steel manufacturers want government to hike duty on its imports to rein in dumping of the alloy into the country.

TATA Steel's Managing Director Mr H M Nerurkar said in his Budget wish list that "In order to protect interests of the domestic industry Budget needs to revisit last year's hike in excise duty and take steps to discourage dumping of products. The duty hike on steel imports is needed as the volume of shipments has increased by a whopping 40% in the first 6 months of the ongoing fiscal. In line with the government's policy of reducing import duty for raw materials for making steel import duty on steel grade limestone, dolomite and iron ore should also be reduced to 0%".

Jindal Steel and Power's MD & CEO Mr Ravi Uppal asked the government to take steps for discouraging dumping into India as this would destroy the potential of the domestic steel industry. He said that "No dumping should be allowed in steel in India. The main challenge is China. They produce 750 million tonne of steel and can easily dump it in India. If that happens then the baby will die in its cradle. The domestic steel capacity has to be protected and we project that from under 100 million tonne per annum it will rise to 130 million tonne per annum by 2018."

The government had in the budget for the current fiscal enhanced basic customs duty on non alloy, flat rolled steel from 5% earlier to 7.5%. It also hiked the excise duty at the same time.