The Indian government will not give any blanket waiver to user companies for grades of steel not manufactured in India, an Indian steel ministry official said on Thursday, June 29.
The steel ministry official said that a special committee would review each and every case submitted by companies intending to procure grades of steel not manufactured in the country to be used in government-funded projects. Last month, the Indian government framed rules under which preference would be given to domestic steel for use in government projects.
However, government owned and managed companies like Indian Railways and oil exploration and production major ONGC Limited have sought an automatic waiver of the mandatory use of domestic steel for government projects if these companies were to procure grades of steel not manufactured in the country, thereby becoming eligible for the same preference as applicable for domestically produced steel, the official said.
As per the rule for mandatory use of domestic steel, government projects will only procure domestic steel in which there has been a minimum value addition of 15 percent within India.
Indian Railways has submitted that rails procured by it should not be included within the purview of the minimum domestic value addition rule but the Ministry of Steel has turned down this request, the official said. He stated that Indian Railways or any other company seeking such a waiver of the minimum value addition norm should submit each procurement plan and this would be reviewed by a high-level committee, but no blanket waiver would be offered to any steel user.