Government discussed about the MIP continuation

The Dollar Business Bureau

The government has imposed lot of measures in order to check the steel import and is also in discussion with the industry on alteration and the continuation of MIP on steel products.

This year, during the month of February, the government has imposed a minimum import price on 173 steel products ranging between the $341 to $752 per tonne.

This has come as a big relief for the domestic companies from the cheap in -bound shipments especially from countries like Korea, China and Japan.

Aruna Sundararajan, Steel Secretary said, “People have given us representations, some for addition some for deletion. So we have to examine those.”

She also added that, “We have to look for two things. First the merit of the argument that industries are making. Then we need to see what is the behaviour. Have imports really increased in certain categories or have they come down in certain categories. We need to analyse both the situations.”

The secretary also pointed out that work is going on and the ministry is also in discussion with stake holders on the continuation and addition or deletion of the steel products from the MIP list.

The Minimum Import Price expires next month.

Aruna added that, “We cannot arbitrarily impose duties. The industry will have to convince us why we should impose duty on certain products. It is a process.”

She also said that, "We are trying to persuade the industry to file their petitions in time and provide all the information to the Steel and Commerce Ministries.”