Govt mulls 15 pc export duty on steel products

NEW DELHI: Stepping up its efforts to control rising steel prices, the government is likely to impose up to 15 per cent export duty on various steel products, including those used exclusively for construction purposes.

"More than flat products, there is scarcity of long steel products and as such there is an express need to contain their prices. There is clearly a case for imposing export duty on both flat and long products like bars, rods etc," an official source told media.

As part of the move, the government is also planning to impose 10 per cent duty on export of flat steel products used by automobile sector and 15 per cent on long steel products like TMT bars, rods, wires and galvanised plain and corrugated steel sheets, the source said.

The Finance Ministry is understood to have approved a slew of measures for containing the upward spiral in steel prices after harping on a 'revenue-neutral model' to offset the losses to the exchequer on account of these measures.

A notification to this effect from the Finance Ministry is expected this week.

Interestingly, the government is planning to impose export duty on galvanised sheets as the earlier suggestion from the Steel Ministry was to levy duty on flat and long products.

Steel prices have risen by up to 49 per cent during the past one year and recently most companies, barring state-run steel giant SAIL and world's cheapest steel maker Tata, have started levying raw material surcharge of Rs 5,000 to somewhat offset their input costs.