Very often we hear various plans and programmes, notifications, government guidelines that are mostly in the interest of the people or are issued for the benefit of the weaker sections, but are rendered ineffective due to inadequate attention paid on its implementation. Many a times, the industry is made to suffer due to lack of clarity in some of the important clauses of the notification thereby leaving a scope of multiple interpretations.

The ministry of steel (MOS) had taken a lead in issuing amended steel and steel products (quality control) second order, 2012, issued by the government on September 12, 2012. The amendment was necessitated by a prolonged discussions and deliberations with the small and medium steel enterprises and it goes to the credit of the ministry to take into account industry’s apprehensions regarding its implementation and granting an extension of six-month time to give effect to some provisions of notification.

The order is applicable to all steel manufacturers registered with Bureau of Standards (BIS) and are licensed to produce, store or sell the specified categories. Out of thousands of steel producers in the country, only 60-65% have obtained registration and the rest have got a fresh extension to get registered.

The minimum requirements for registration requires that the product samples be duly tested in an approved laboratory of BIS under the supervision of the appropriate authority that belongs to either MOS or district industry departments of the state. Thus, a lot of responsibilities have been given to government officials (both Centre and states) who would act as a watchdog for the successful implementation of the quality standards for the benefit of the common man.

The small and medium steel enterprises need to be fully assured of the help, guidance and advice to be extended to them by the government officials or their agents to facilitate the process of the registration and the eventual compliance of the order.

There is another aspect of the order which permits the steel producers to dispose off the non-standard items as scrap as per the scheme of testing and inspection of BIS. This is not clear as steel products with minor variation from the stipulated standards (sometimes categorised under the broad nomenclature of Commercial grade) are used by various end users for non-critical applications and use of prime superior grades would unnecessarily hike the price of such end products with no real benefit/saving on steel use.

This aspect needs a pragmatic resolution. The issue is also relevant from another aspect, namely, the import of seconds and defectives in HR coils, CR Coils, CRNO and GP which are covered under the present Quality Order. By this Order, all steel exporters to India would have to carry a BIS license of registration. The same cannot be termed as a non-tariff barrier as the Ministry of Steel has already taken the trouble of keeping WTO duly informed as per statutory provisions. Indian Customs authorities have therefore a major role to play in restricting import of non-standard steel as per the order.

The user segments including the critical sectors in Energy, Oil and Gas, Irrigation, urban infrastructure, Defence and Railways, Ports etc. for whose benefit the notification has been issued must be made aware of the implication of the order and the message must reach all their project execution agencies for better compliance. The monitoring of the Quality order, therefore, assumes immense significance and provides a stiff challenge to the industry, consumers, the government agencies and all other stakeholders to establish the quality aspect of steel produced in India.

The author is DG, Institute of Steel Growth and Development. The views expressed are personal