Ahead of the Budget, domestic iron and steel players have sought abolition of 2.5 per cent basic customs duty on import of coking coal – a key raw material used in steel making.
Removal of duty on coking coal is a long standing demand of the industry.
At present India’s 85 per cent of demand of coking coal is met through imports, industry bodies Ficci and CII have apprised the Ministry of Steel in a pre-Budget proposal.
“As there is no substitution for coking coal in steel making, import duty of 2.5 per cent on coking coal is redundant as import protection,” the industry demanded in the proposal.
Due to the increasing and volatile coking coal prices, domestic merchant pig iron industry is suffering from huge losses, which forced many players to stop operations, it said.
