Sail Seeks Waiver Of Excise Duties

Public sector steel major Steel Authority of India (SAIL) has made a formal request to the Union government to waive excise duties on select import items like coking coal and ferro alloys which are crucial inputs for steel production.

Speaking to newspersons here yesterday, Arvind Pande, chairman, SAIL, said the Union budget imposed eight per cent special duty has caught the steel major in a tight spot because the duty would push up costs of crucial raw materials like coking coal, ferro chrome zinc and tin which are imported by SAIL. The waiver of excise duties on these items would help SAIL to reduce its production costs which is of major significance now as the steel major has decided not to cut volumes in terms of production this year.

However, if input costs continue to escalate the company would have problems in price realisations, Pande said. An important announcement made by the SAIL chairman yesterday was that the steel major has decided not to hike prices any further in the near future. Instead efforts will be trained on controlling production costs, he said.

The company also expects to post a 15 per cent growth in exports during the current financial year.

The export target for this year has been set at 1.25 million tonne as compared with one million tonne in 1997-98. The internal plan for exports had pegged growth this year at 20 per cent but Pande said a 15 per cent growth would be quite satisfactory.

Following the infrastructure investments promised by the Union budget, SAIL expects its market share to increase substantially and is working on a re-orientation of its product-mix to meet the demands of the new market. Pande also said, following the import duty reliefs to stainless steel, SAIL's Alloy Steels Plant would have better opportunities for growth.

IDBI to submit report

The Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) will submit its report on the financial restructuring of Steel Authority of India (SAIL) within two months. This was announced by Arvind Pande here yesterday. The public sector steel major recently appointed IDBI to execute its financial restructuring which is expected to leave SAIL with a cleaner balance sheet. The financial restructuring is being undertaken to enable SAIL to source more funds from the debt market.