Indian stainless steel producers are asking the Indian government to take another look at the import duty changes affected in the national budget placed before the country’s parliament last week, an official at the Indian Stainless Steel Development Association (ISSDA) said on Wednesday, February 8.
The official said that the ISSDA had sought zero import duty or a reduction in import duties on all stainless steel manufacturing raw materials in order to bring down domestic costs of production.
However, the government in the national budget 2017-18 placed before parliament on February 1 proposed to scrap basic customs duty on import nickel but has not made any changes to the 2.5 percent import duty on ferronickel and stainless steel scrap even though imports of the latter two meet the bulk of demand from domestic stainless steel producers.
The ISSDA wants the import duty on all nickel-based products to be scrapped in the course of the parliamentary process for the passing of the national budget for the coming fiscal year.
The ISSDA pointed out that the government did not accede to the demand of domestic producers to increase the import duty on finished stainless steel from 7.5 percent to 12.5 percent and, with no reduction in customs duty across the board for imported raw material, the government has not offered domestic producers any competitive edge, the official added.