India’s ministry of steel has proposed a safeguard duty of 25 percent on steel imports into the country, government officials said on Tuesday, December 3.
They said that the proposal to impose the safeguard duty on steel imports was mooted and discussed at a meeting between minister of steel, H D Kumarasamy, and minister of commerce and industry, Piyush Goyal.
Officials representing steelmaking companies like SAIL, Tata Steel, JSW Steel and ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel (AMNS) also attended the meeting.
In a statement, the minister of steel said that the two ministries discussed ways to collaborate and ensure ease of doing business for domestic players.
The sources said that 62 percent of steel imports landing at Indian ports originated from free trade agreement (FTA) countries at zero customs duty. It was noted in the meeting that hiking customs duty would not be effective in checking imports from these FTA countries as a zero rate was part of the agreements.
Hence, a safeguard duty was considered to be the best option as it could be made applicable to all imports of steel into the country, irrespective of its origin.