NEW DELHI: The government is readying to impose more curbs on steel imports, including introducing a safeguard duty, after a 20 per cent import tax failed to contain losses for producers such as Steel Authority of India.
SAIL, JSW SteelBSE -1.30 % and Essar Steel have complained that surging imports from Indonesia, China, Japan, Russia, Ukraine and South Korea were squeezing their market share and profit margins.
In October, steelmakers asked the government to impose a safeguard duty for four years on imports of hot rolled flat sheets and plates of alloy or non-alloy steel, and set a minimum import price, to contain cheaper steel imports.
The Directorate General of Safeguards, a branch of the finance ministry that can impose temporary import curbs, said on Tuesday that it found prima facie evidence that increases in imports “have caused or threatening to cause serious injury to the domestic producers”.
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