The Indian government has offered protection against steel imports for large corporations which are better equipped in lobbying and at the cost of small and medium enterprises (MSEs), an official of Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC) said on Tuesday.
Calling for withdrawal of the 20 percent safeguard duty on flat steel products imposed by the Directorate General for Safeguards, “We have no objection to the government helping large steel companies but it should not be at the cost of SMEs which cater to a large domestic market and account for bulks of India’s merchandise exports. Indian engineering goods exporters will have to bear the brunt of high cost of steel raw materials while benefits of exporting finished goods will be reaped by big corporations,” EEPC chairperson, Anupam Shah said.
According to estimates of EEPC, the import protection offered to flat steel producers will translate into at least a 15 percent hike in cost of finished steel products in the engineering goods segment and render the latter noncompetitive in international markets.
EEPC claims that while the government takes into consideration of dumping of flat steel products into the country, it fails to acknowledge the fact that Chinese engineering product manufacturers are also dumping finished products in the Indian market.