India’s ministry of steel is likely to revamp the country’s Steel Import Monitoring System (SIMS) by removing the requirement for consignment-wise declarations, government sources said on Thursday, November 20.
The relaxation is aimed at easing the compliance burden on steel consumers in micro, small, medium enterprises (MSMEs) by allowing a single registration for up to 1,000 mt of imports per year per enterprise, the sources said.
SIMS was introduced in 2019 to improve the traceability of various steel grades entering the country, with procedures tightened further in 2024. However, importers reported that the mandatory paperwork for each shipment often slowed down the clearance process.
The relaxation of SIMS will reduce clearance time at ports for steel consignments by significantly reducing the number of data entry fields required in the system, the sources said.