The government has decided to cut short an annual trip undertaken by officials of the steel and commerce ministries to Japan and South Korea, the objective of which is to ostensibly negotiate annual prices of iron ore supplied from the mines of NMDC Ltd to steel mills in these two countries.
After an unusually strong intervention by the commerce ministry, the number of officers deputed for this year?s trip has been cut down to just four, as against the original 10 nominated for the visit slated for next week. Also, the duration of the tour this year has been cut to five days instead of the pre-scheduled seven days. Last year, a team of 10 officers had visited these two nations, while 12 had visited the previous year. In an August 29 note pertaining to this year?s Tokyo/Seoul trip, commerce secretary Rajeev Kher noted: ?The delegation will work on a methodology where annual visits of this kind are obviated.?
This is broadly in line with the Narendra Modi government?s efforts to clamp down on foreign junkets undertaken by government servants, and is meant to convey the message that neither ministers, nor bureaucrats should undertake such trips without a clear road map on ensuring the deliverables. Kher is learnt to have prevailed upon his ministry as well as the steel ministry to depute only?indispensable? officials in the delegation and sanction ?minimum? number of days to execute the job this year.
Accordingly additional steel secretary Vinod Thukral and his commerce ministry counterparts Madhusudan Prasad and S K Dhesi, along with NMDC chairman and managing director Narendra Kothari make up the four-member team this year.
The delegation would be negotiating the prices of NMDC?s iron ore under a long-term agreement from April 1, 2015 for three years. The state-owned company has been supplying the mineral to four Japanese steel mills and Posco since the past two decades and another state-run firm MMTC Limited, which is the canalising agency, has been negotiating the prices as per the global benchmarks.
In June, Cabinet Secretary Ajit Seth had sent a missive to Union secretaries seeking a cutback on unnecessary foreign trips and clearances being sought at the last minute. He had insisted that permissions for overseas travel should be sought well in time to allow the proposals to be scrutinised properly.
The government asked ministers and officials to submit their proposals for overseas travel to the Prime Minister?s Office at least 10 days ahead of the travel date against the earlier limit of five. Besides, ministers and officials are now required to put on record what they have implemented from their learning during their earlier foreign visit ? an additional requirement imposed by Modi on top of the traditional tour report officials submitted after every overseas outing.