Metals & mining sector lauds Budget 2014 moves

Venkatesan Subramanian, Vice President & Global Leader, Metals & Minerals Practice, Frost & Sullivan said:

"For the metals and minerals industry, the hike in export duty of bauxite and import duty hike on flat rolled products of stainless steel are positive as it is expected to boost domestic sales and bring additional investment into the sector in form of new projects and capacity expansion in these industries. The government policies in this sector points to the right direction of value addition for mineral ores fulfilling domestic demand through local production."

Kameswara Rao, Leader Energy, Utilities Mining, PwC India said:
"The focus in mining sector is clearly on conservation, such as of using coal for existing power plants, encouraging sustainable mining practices, and setting up washeries. Normalisation of import duties on all forms of imported coal removes delays and procedural issues that importers faced.

The more challenging issues the industry faces in both coal and other minerals including iron ore will need legislative and structural changes, and the FM indicated these would be taken up. The indication that royalty rates could be revised are positive to the mineral rich states, and it is hoped some of that would be reinvested in improving access to the mines and local area development which will improve investment attractiveness."

Manoj Kumar Agarwal, managing director of Adhunik Metaliks, a leading manufacturer of speciality automotive steels said:

"The step taken by government to amend the MMDR act to increase investment in mining and the proactive initiative of Government to enhance coal production will add to the growth of the economy."

N C Mathur, president, Indian Stainless Steel Development Association (ISSDA) said:

"We welcome the step taken by the finance minister to increase the custom duty on imported flat rolled stainless steel from 5% in 7.5%. Keeping in mind the condition of the domestic industry the government should have also reduced the duty on input raw materials like stainless steel scrap, nickel both of which are not domestically available.

We applaud the government for recognizing the challenges which the domestic industry is facing especially in light of huge surge in imports from China. We hope this issue would also be addressed by the government on urgent basis through anti dumping and safe guard measures.

With a focus on development, the Modi government has also put impetus on improving the infrastructure and housing sector across the country. This should also translate into giving a boost to the domestic stainless steel market.”