Key raw materials for foundaries should be duty free: IIF

Institute of Indian Foundrymen today said the import of key raw materials for foundaries should be made duty free so that the impact of devaluation of Rupee is offset to some extent.
In a pre-budget proposals to the Finance Ministry, Institute of Indian Foundrymen (IIF) said, "the import of key raw materials should be made duty free so that the impact of devaluation of INR is offset to some extent."
IIF suggests that crucial raw materials like pig iron, scrap of cast iron, stainless steel, aluminium, met coke, among others should be duty free.
"In fact some of the raw materials such as metal scrap were allowed to be imported duty free. However, subsequently import duties were imposed on these and the falling INR resulted in further impact on cost of imports of these raw materials," Anil Vaswani, President, IIF said in a statement.

The average duties on raw materials for foundries in India are higher than those in competing countries which results in cost disadvantage to Indian foundries, affecting the global cost competitiveness of domestic foundries, Vaswani said in the statement.
In its pre-budget proposal, IIF has also sought setting up of a revolving Technology Up gradation Fund of Rs 1,000 crore for investments in greener and productive technology in line with Textile TUF (Technology Upgradation Fund), he said in the statement.