India’s Ministry of Finance will later this week likely issue formal notification extending the 20 percent safeguard duty on hot rolled coil (HRC) imports until 2018, a senior official at the Ministry of Steel said on Tuesday, March 29
Meanwhile, local Indian mills have submitted to the Ministry of Steel that several importers of HRC are bypassing the safeguard duty by misstating the grade of HRC.
The local steel mills claimed that, while the government imposed the 20 percent levy on HRC with widths of 600 mm or more, importers are declaring their HRC consignments as American Petroleum Institute (API) grade steel which does not attract the levy.
Accordingly, the Indian steel mills have urged the government to extend the safeguard duty to cover API grade steel to prevent duty evasion.