Ahead of India’s national budget scheduled to be presented to Parliament on February 01,2018, the Federation of Indian Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (FISME) in a memorandum to the government has sought ‘immediate elimination of all safeguard duties on imported steel.
FISME memorandum pointed out that micro, small and medium engineering and capital goods manufacturers are being hit by higher costs of domestic steel and disincentives imposed through import protection measures on steel products, which are negatively impacting the competitiveness of steel consuming units in this sector.
FISME, representing 740 organizations of micro, small and medium sized industrial units across the country, is seeking to establish of a consultative mechanism including steel consumers in the micro, small and medium sector. In this way, the future concerns of these steel consuming sectors are taken into consideration, while imposing import protection measures unilaterally to serve interest of only steel producers.