New Delhi: The Steel and Mines Ministry has sought rollback of 2.5 per cent duty on coking coal imports, imposed in the last Budget, to unburden domestic steel makers. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Budget 2014-15 had imposed 2.5 per cent duty on coking coal imports, which the steel industry had said could lead to an increase in cost of steel production by Rs 200 a tonne.
"We have written to the Finance Ministry urging to bring down the import duty to nil. However, we are yet to hear from the Finance Ministry," a senior steel ministry official said. "Coking coal is an essential raw material for the making of steel and our steel makers do not get them adequately from domestic sources. Hence, they have to import them from abroad. We believe the cost of raw material should always be lower," he said.
Reacting to the Budget proposal, domestic steel makers had said that in view of the current shortage of domestic coal for both steel and power sector, increase in basic customs duty on coking coal "requires to be reconsidered". Indian steel makers mostly used imported coking coal for use in the blast furnace and the annual volume goes up beyond 35 million tonnes. This is due to subdued and stagnant supply from state-run Coal India Ltd. Production of one tonne of steel requires 0.8 tonnes of coking coal.
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