Steel ministry for interest subsidy on pelletisation, energy saving

KOLKATA: The steel ministry is set to begin the process to formulate an interest rate subsidy scheme for value-addition in iron-ore fines and energy efficiency in the secondary steel plants, an advisor to the ministry said today.

"Both the plans for offering interest rate subsidy for iron ore processing and introducing energy-efficient systems in secondary steel plants has received in-principal approval of the Planning Commission. Now we are going to begin the process to formulate the scheme details," Steel ministry Advisor (industrial) ACR Das said here today.

Speaking on the sidelines of 'Iron Ore Pellet Conference 2012' organised by OreTeam, Das said the ministry had recommended for a five per cent interest rate subsidy for both the plans.

"We are holding first meeting on March 28 on deliberating on energy efficiency in secondary steel plants. While, I have begun seeking inputs on iron-ore processing scheme," he said.

The government was mooting to offer interest subsidy for iron-ore fine processing like pelletisation, benificiation and agglomeration of iron-ore.

Once the schemes are ready, these would be sent again for Planning Commission's nod and then to Finance Ministry, Das said.

There is huge mismatch in use of iron-ore fines domestic consumption and production due to lack in pelletisation in the country and subsidy should encourage the same, steel industry officials said.

The steel ministry was also planning to set up a corpus of Rs 1000 crore of which Rs 500 crore was expected from government as R&D fund for indigenous new technology pilot projects, Das said.

"We want both Tata Steel and SAIL on board for the new indigenous steel making technologies as I have doubts whether foreign companies will give their know-how for special products," he said.