In a major relief to the steel producers as well as consumers, India’s Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said his Ministry will recommend the creation of a regulatory body to control fluctuations in prices, doing away with the duty on scrap and measures to ensure that domestic demand is met before exports from the country.
After a meeting of the National Steel Consumers Council in New Delhi, Paswan said the Ministry would recommend to the Government that a National Steel Regulatory Commission be created to regulate prices of steel in the free market era.
''There should be a mechanism to check steel prices and also regulate exports and imports. There is a consensus between steel consumers and producers on the creation of such a body.''
He said the Ministry will also recommend that in the forthcoming budget the duty on scrap, which currently stands at 5 percent, is reduced to zero. ''This will encourage domestic production as scrap will be used to produce steel,'' he said.
Paswan added that domestic demand for steel had long been overlooked due to exports. ''We will also see that materials required in India are provided before exports are made.'' Already, the Public Sector Undertakings have been given standing instructions to give preference to meeting domestic demand in view of fluctuations in steel prices, Steel Joint Secretary J P Singh said.
The Ministry also said it would review the demand to reduce the duty on finished steel from 15 percent to 5 percent. ''However, producers favor it while consumers are opposing it. We will work on this suggestion,'' Paswan added. Calcutta Telegraph