It takes a steel-will to do certain things and saving the sinking boat of the stainless steel processing industry at Wazirpur is not an easy task. The Stainless Steel Trade Federation in Delhi expressed distress, on Thursday, over the finance minister’s announcement to increase the basic customs duty on imported stainless steel by a mere 2.5 percent. This increase is not sufficient to save stainless steel processing industry at Wazirpur, worth crores, from the unfair competition that it faces from China even for a week, says president of the federation.
Increase in the duties from 5 percent till date to 7.5 percent means that traders from China will have to reduce their rate by merely around $40 per tonne, to brace themselves up for the competition and they will hardly take a week to do that. ‘We requested the ministry, in late May, that the duty imposed on stainless steel be raised from five percent to 15 percent. In the budget, they should at least have set it at 10 percent, which is equivalent to the customs rate that China levies on stainless steel that their traders import from other nations,’ said Jaykumar Bansal, president of the Delhi Stainless Steel Trade Federation.
In India, customs duty of 2.5 percent is levied on scrap of nickel and steel, which is used to produce stainless steel, but scrap import in China is duty free. ‘Import of scrap should have been made duty free and import of finished stainless steel should be charged with a 10 percent duty. That would have fetched the government more revenue,’ Bansal said. He further added that request regarding the duty on scrap was also mentioned in the same letter mailed to the ministry in late May. China hardly imports any stainless steel today. It produces a surplus and has been dumping the excess in India for the past four years.
Increase in the duties from 5 percent till date to 7.5 percent means that traders from China will have to reduce their rate by merely around $40 per tonne, to brace themselves up for the competition and they will hardly take a week to do that. ‘We requested the ministry, in late May, that the duty imposed on stainless steel be raised from five percent to 15 percent. In the budget, they should at least have set it at 10 percent, which is equivalent to the customs rate that China levies on stainless steel that their traders import from other nations,’ said Jaykumar Bansal, president of the Delhi Stainless Steel Trade Federation.
In India, customs duty of 2.5 percent is levied on scrap of nickel and steel, which is used to produce stainless steel, but scrap import in China is duty free. ‘Import of scrap should have been made duty free and import of finished stainless steel should be charged with a 10 percent duty. That would have fetched the government more revenue,’ Bansal said. He further added that request regarding the duty on scrap was also mentioned in the same letter mailed to the ministry in late May. China hardly imports any stainless steel today. It produces a surplus and has been dumping the excess in India for the past four years.