Bittu for easing of import duty on scrap
Tuesday, 15/07/2014
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2014/20140715/ldh1.htm#25
Ludhiana : MP Ravneet Singh Bittu today batted for the small and medium steel industries of Ludhiana and Mandi Gobindgarh in the Lok Sabha. He urged the government to reduce the import duty on scrap to zero as was the case earlier. He also demanded the lowering of excise duty from 12.36 per cent to 6 per cent to help the local industry.
Bittu said there were many clusters of the steel industry in the country which were facing difficulties. One such cluster is located around Ludhiana and Mandi Gobindgarh in Punjab. “The industries use scrap as raw material and have been serving the country for the past four decades by catering to the requirements of our automobile, engineering and housing sectors. The small and medium industries have been providing employment to lakhs of people. But today 50 per cent of the industries have closed down and the remaining are on the verge of closure which would render lakhs of workmen jobless, besides loss of investments worth several thousand crores of rupees,” he said.
Demanding that raw material be made easily available to the industry, Bittu urged the Union Government to provide early clearances for supply of iron ore and coal to the domestic industry so that the industry was able to manufacture sufficient steel for the needs of the country and was also able to export.
