JOIN US The Centre on Monday, deferred the decision on a proposal to impose safeguard duty on key steel items by two months, saying that the matter needs to be examined further after taking views of the consuming industry.
“We felt that not enough homework had been done and there is a need to consult both the domestic industry and other interested parties concerned,” Commerce Secretary G K Pillai said.
“We have asked the Directorate General on Safeguards (DGS) to consult the domestic (user) industry and come back to the board after 60 days (with recommendations),” he added.
“...there was no urgency to consider the safeguard duty,” Steel Secretary P K Rastogi, a member of the board said, adding that the interim proposals of the DGS was found to be “insufficient.” When asked if there could an injury to the local industry in view of non-imposition of the safeguard duty, Pillai said, “From evidence we do not see any threat to the industry.”
Steel producers, led by Essar Steel and Ispat, had approached the government for immediate imposition of safeguard duty on key steel items.
The Directorate General of Safeguards (DGS) has already recommended to the Commerce Ministry for levying a safeguard duty of 25 per cent on imports of flat steel products like hot-rolled coils, sheets and strips shipped below US$600 per tonne. The directorate’s recommendation was based on initial findings that increased imports has caused “serious injury” to the domestic steel industry. Two leading private producers – Essar Steel and Ispat Industries – had filed a petition for imposing safeguard duty and the same was supported by SAIL and JSW Steel.
Based on the petition, the government had in April initiated safeguard investigations for flat steel products, which are mainly used by sectors like automobile and infrastructure.
The applicants along with supporting companies accounted for nearly 80 per cent of the country’s total steel production between April 2008 and February 2009.