The Indian government has proposed several measures in the national budget 2022-23 to provide relief to secondary steel mills and cool down domestic prices of steel, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said while delivering her budget speech to parliament on Tuesday, February 1.
The budget has proposed extending exemption of customs duty on imported scrap for one year and this will provide relief to secondary steel mills in the micro, medium and small-scale enterprise (MSME) bracket in sourcing raw material at competitive prices, Sitharaman said.
She said that certain antidumping (AD) duties and countervailing duties will be revoked for stainless steel and coated steel flat products of alloy steel and high-speed steel in the larger public interest considering the prevailing high prices of these products in the domestic market.
While no details were mentioned in her speech, government officials said that measures including AD duty on high speed steel of non-cobalt grade originating from Brazil, China and Germany will be scrapped.
Furthermore, the AD duty on flat rolled steel products coated with aluminum or zinc, imported from China, Vietnam and South Korea will be rescinded.
At the same time, countervailing duty on hot rolled coil and cold rolled coil imported from China will be revoked.
