The government on Monday announced slashing of import duties on a number of steel items in order to provide relief to MSMEs, which have been hit hard by the high cost of raw materials.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget speech for 2021-22 said the anti-dumping duty (ADD) and countervailing duty (CVD) have also been revoked on certain steel products.
“MSMEs and other user industries have been severely hit by a recent sharp rise in iron and steel prices. Therefore, we are reducing customs duty uniformly to 7.5 per cent on semis, flat, and long products of non-alloy, alloy, and stainless steels.
“To provide relief to metal re-cyclers, mostly MSMEs, I am exempting duty on steel scrap for a period up to 31st March 2022. I am also revoking ADD and CVD on certain steel products. Also, to provide relief to copper re-cyclers, I am reducing duty on copper scrap from 5 per cent to 2.5 per cent,” she said.
The minister also announced increasing duty on steel screws and plastic builder wares from 10 per cent to 15 per cent.
The existing duty on primary/semi-finished products of non-alloy steel, long products of non-alloy, stainless and alloy steel is 10 per cent, while on flat products of non-alloy and alloy-steel the duty ranges between 10 per cent to 12.5 per cent.
The duty on all these items has been lowered to 7.5 per cent.
The 2.5 per cent duty on iron and steel melting scrap, including stainless steel scrap, and raw materials used in the manufacture of CRGO (Cold Rolled Grain Oriented) steel has been lowered to nil in the Budget.
The products on which ADD has been temporarily revoked are straight length bars and rods of alloy-steel – originating in or exported from the People’s Republic of China, and high-speed steel of non-cobalt grade – originating in or exported from Brazil, People’s Republic of China and Germany.
The ADD has also been revoked on the flat-rolled product of steel, plated or coated with an alloy of aluminium or zinc, originating in or exported from People’s Republic of China, Vietnam and Korea.
The CVD has temporarily been revoked on imports of certain hot rolled and cold rolled stainless steel flat products, originating in or exported from the People’s Republic of China.
Provisional CVD has been revoked on imports flat products of stainless steel, originating in or exported from Indonesia.
In Sunset Review, anti-dumping duty on cold-rolled flat products of stainless steel of width 600 mm to 1,250 mm and above 1,250 mm of non-bonafide usage originating in or exported from People’s Republic of China, Korea RP, European Union, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand and the United States of America has been discontinued upon expiry of the anti-dumping duty.