Ease of Doing Business for MSMEs: The Federation of Coimbatore Industrial Associations (FOCIA) on Friday urged the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to not withdraw export duty on steel products until the global recession is over. The Industry Association also asked the finance ministry to form a raw material price fixation committee, PTI reported.
In the letter, FOCIA also expressed its gratitude to the finance minister for taking bold measures like levying export duty on finished steel products and iron ore in May.
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The 30 per cent reduction of steel prices in India may have reflected the global trend of falling steel prices but the steps taken by the Finance Minister exhibited the Centre’s willingness to safeguard the interests of MSMEs in the country, the letter read.
Though the raw material prices have come down to an extent, the orders have diminished at present and the MSMEs were affected by the recessionary trend, FOCIA noted. It further stated in the letter that the MSMEs are yet to recover from the damages inflicted by COVID-19 and losses incurred by earlier raw material price escalations.
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Meanwhile, the Steel Ministry in September said that the 15 per cent export duty imposed in May on a range of items covering around 95 per cent of the finished steel export basket is likely to stay till December. The ministry feels that any roll-back of the duty at this stage may suppress domestic prices.
In FY22, India’s steel exports at 18.37 million tonnes (MT), comprising both finished and semi-finished steel, was the highest both in absolute terms and in proportion of production – 11.9 per cent in case of finished steel and 15.3 per cent in case of crude steel.