Indian electrical equipment manufacturers have sought the scrapping of India’s five percent basic import duty on cold rolled grain oriented (CRGO) steel in the forthcoming national budget on February 1, an official from the Indian Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers’ Association (IEEMA) said on Friday, January 27.
The IEEMA official said that the import duty on CRGO steel did not have any rationale since the domestic electrical equipment manufacturing industry was 100 percent dependent on imports and India did not have any production base for this specialized grade of steel.
While India was engaged in setting up pilot projects for the production of CRGO steel, import duty should be scrapped until such time as domestic production reached a critical and sufficient capacity to meet the demand from the electrical manufacturing industry, the official added.
According to government estimates, India’s consumption of CRGO steel amounts to 250,000 mt per year and is fully met through imports. Consumption is expected to rise to 1.35 million mt per year by 2022.