Jamshedpur MP suggests reduction on import duty, increase of export duty in steel

Bidyut attends Parliamentary committee of steel meeting 

Jamshedpur, May 6: Jamshedpur MP Bidyut Baran Mahato today attended the meeting of the Consultative (Parliamentary) Committee of the union steel ministry at Himachal Pradesh.

Union steel minister R.C.P Singh presided over the meeting.

The present status of the steel industry was fully discussed in the meeting. In the meeting, it was discussed to establish India as a major steel producing country in the world market by 2050 and the target was set accordingly. There was a lot of discussion in the meeting of the Parliamentary Committee today that there is a need to make pollution free steel. At the same time, there is also a need to take care that the emission of carbon dioxide in steel production is minimal or minimal. Concerns were also expressed in today’s meeting that due to shortage of scrap, the production of steel in India has been affected.

Bidyut Mahato specially underlined the impact of the rising steel prices on the MSME industry and the manufacturing industry in the domestic market.

 Keeping his point, he said that there has been an unprecedented increase in the demand for steel globally after Covid-19. Due to the unexpected increase in the demand of steel, the price of steel has also increased unexpectedly. Due to this every steel producer is looking to export and taking interest in it. Due to the large quantity of steel exports and price rise, a situation of challenge has arisen in front of the local MSME industry and the construction sector (real estate).

“In the current situation, it seems to the government that the increase in the collection of GST is positive but it is a kind of false satisfaction and confusion. The GST collection after Covid-19 was about 1.10 lakh crores which has increased to 1.68 lakh crores in April. This increase in GST is due to price increase and not due to production in steel. The price of steel has increased from Rs 40000 per metric tonne to Rs 80000 metric tonne. Due to this the profit margin of steel industry has increased to about 400%. For this reason steel producers are looking to export steel,” said Mahato.

 Due to this, on one hand the cost of local MSME industry and manufacturing sector, whose raw material is steel, has increased due to price increase, on the other hand, steel is also not available to them.  Due to this, the MSME industry and the manufacturing sector, which generates maximum employment opportunities in the country, is itself facing a crisis.

The Jamshedpur MP suggested to reduce the import duty on imports so that steel from abroad can come to the country at a lower price. On the other hand, the export duty should be increased so that excessive and uncontrolled exports can be stopped so that the availability of steel in the domestic market especially for MSME sector and construction sector can be made available.