Budget Wishlist: Excise Duty Drop On Steel

First came the price rollback and now India''s steel lobby wants the Finance Minister P Chidambaram to do his bit to bring down the price even more, a relief not just for the aam admi but also for the industry. The Union Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan has already flagged off the agenda seeking to halve the excise duty to 8 per cent but expectations don''t stop here.Tax cuts The steel minister proposes to reduce excise duty on steel to half from 8 per cent, export tax to be up on iron ore and Import duty on iron ore to be nil besides cut in import tax on coking coal to nil from 5 per cent.The steel lobby also wants hike tax on iron ore exports and a simultaneous cut in customs on ore imports. The industry is also demanding to coke coal imports duty free and cut in customs duty on other raw materials like zinc, nickle, LNG.

The iron ore exports should be banned. Declining profits The steel sector has seen many ups and downs in one year since the last budget. Looking at the ups, yes the steel prices have gone up but they have not been able to catch up with the raw material price hikes and this has squeezed the margins of the steel players but those feeling the heat the most are the smaller steel producers.