Plant & Machinery and capital goods manufacturers in the country have demanded zero% duty on stainless steel and special steel due to steep devaluation of Indian Rupee.

Mr V P Ramachandran, Secretary General of Process Plant and Machinery Association of India said that “The Capital Goods manufacturing companies exporting Process Plant machinery have urged the Union Ministry of Finance and Commerce to remove duties on import of high grade stainless steel hot rolled sheets, coils and cold rolled products not currently manufactured in India. Government had imposed anti dumping duties as well on imports originating from European Union, South Korea, Taiwan and USA and South Africa despite the fact that there are so many grades and forms which are presently not manufactured in India.”

He said that “The anti dumping duty on these products was imposed by the government based on filing of frivolous anti dumping applications filed by Jindal Stainless Limited to gain monopoly. We demand full inquiry into levying of various anti dumping duties by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry and DGAD at behest of single manufacturer in last few years. The company wants to have complete monopoly and is currently selling its poor quality products in the country USD 200 below the global prices.”

Mr Ramachandran said that “Presently the single largest manufacturer of Stainless steel in India Jindal Stainless Limited has requested Ministry of Commerce to enlarge the scope of Anti Dumping duty on import of flat Stainless steel below 600 mm and above 1,250 mm.”

He said that “We also demand status quo of no duty on flat Stainless steel flat below 600 mm and above 1,250 mm as these products currently attract no duty and are used by the critical segment of end users of specific grade and size stainless steel including oil and gas, desalination, heavy equipment manufacturers, nuclear power, automotive, stainless steel pipe, infrastructure and petrochemical industry need products of global standards only and alsowider sheets not manufactured by JSL. We are manufacturers of capital equipments for critical segment of infrastructure and are the end users of specific grades and sizes of stainless steel for catering to energy, oil and gas ,desalination, nuclear energy, automotive,infrastructure projects and chemical industry.”

He added that “The continuing depreciation of Indian currency against US Dollar since one year and the steep depreciation in past few weeks by 20% has already given a protection margin of over 40 % to the domestic manufacturers . Capital goods industry has to import products as per International quality which are not produced in India and therefore imposition of duty is a disadvantage to us. Nation has set the agenda to create excellent infrastructure which means investments in petrochemical, water treatment, Energy, Oil & Gas, Automobiles, Heavy Equipment manufacturing for the emerging critical segments of nation. Our members manufacture equipment’s for these segments in India and also to meet the competitive global demand through exports.”