India’s Ministry of Steel has recommended replacing multiple rates of import duties on steel ranging five percent to 12.5 percent with a single rate of 15 percent and scrapping of 2.5 percent import duty on coking coal, a senior ministry official said on Tuesday, September 25.
He said that the recommendations have been submitted to the Ministry of Finance in response to the government bid to impose measures to cut down on country’s total import bill and check the rising current account deficit (difference of net foreign exchange outflow and inflow).
The Ministry of Steel felt that apart from checking inflow of steel products a flat rate of duty replacing varied rates based on different products will also check the malpractice of misdeclared steel product specification to get benefit of a lower rate of duty, the official said.
At the same time, the ministry felt the need to scrap import duty on coking coal as the domestic steel mills were import dependant on the input to the extent of around 70 percent of total coking coal demand and Indian coal miners are not in a position to increase domestic supplies even in the long term, he added.