Stainless steel industry seeks import duty cut on key raw materials
KK Pahuja, President, ISSDA said, “The government has set in motion a wave of reforms to boost economic growth and the Indian stainless steel industry is ready to contribute to the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ vision. This is the optimum time for the government to stop considering essential raw materials as source of revenue and provide stimulus to domestic manufacturing by exempting duties on importing critical raw materials. This step will improve the competitiveness of the domestic industry and in turn, provide impetus to the hard hit MSME segment, which has a 40 per cent share in the domestic stainless-steel industry.
Additionally, undue imports have harmed the domestic industry which is operating at 60 per cent of its capacity and is financially stressed after COVID-19 related disruptions. We request the government to rationalise the duty structure in order to catalyse the revival of this sector that has immense potential to generate additional jobs.”