With the India’s Ministry of Finance commencing work in preparing national budget 2019-20, Ministry of Steel will make a fresh bid to bring down import duty on coking coal from 2.5 percent to zero, a Ministry of Steel official said on Wednesday, November 21.
He said that considering the heavy dependence of Indian steel industry on imported coking coal to the extent of 80 percent of total demand, a reduction in rate ‘will not be enough and that the rate should be nil’ to ensure competitiveness of domestic steel production.
It might be noted that the Ministry of Steel’s bid to lower coking coal import duty was ignored by the Ministry of Finance while announcing the national budget for 2018-19, earlier this year.