Registration compulsory for 215 imported iron, steel products: Govt

NEW DELHI: The government has made it compulsory for importers to register themselves with Steel Import Monitoring System (SIMS) to be able to import two hundred odd iron and steel products including certain flat-rolled products; some stranded wire, ropes, cables; certain items of springs and leaves for springs of iron and steel; tubes, pipes and hollow profiles; diesel-electric locomotives; and some parts of railways.

The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), under the commerce and industry ministry has said that “import policy” for these 215 items “has been revised from ‘free’ to ‘free’ subject to compulsory registration under SIMS”.

The importer will have to enter the registration number and expiry date of registration in the bill of entry to enable customs to clear consignment. The online registration will be available from September 16 this year.


As per an official, this import-export data will bring transparency and help solve the issue of overinvocing and underinvoicing.

SIMS, which collects and publishes data of steel mill product imports, will require importers to submit advance information in an online system for import of these items and obtain an automatic registration number by paying specified amount of fee.

“It will also protect the dometic industry and help in taking anti-dumping actions,” the official added.

“The importer can apply for registration not earlier than 60th day and not later than 15th day before the expected date of arrival of import consignment,” DGFT said in the notification. The registration number will be valid for a period of 75 days.