Budget 2016: Steel Ministry demands another rise in peek customs duty

In order to protect the domestic steel industry, which is facing tough times, the Steel Ministry of India has pitched for addressing the inverted duty structure in the upcoming Budget. Not only this, they have also asked the Finance Ministry to raise the peak duty rate by 10%, which means that they want the present 15% duty to be raised to 25%.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will present the Union Budget for the 2016-17 fiscal in Parliament on 29th February.

If this proposal is accepted, it will be the second consecutive increase in the peak rate in two budget sessions, as the last budget had raised the peak customs duty from 10 to 15%.

Earlier this month, the government had done a small bit to protect the steel industry when it had imposed a minimum import price (MIP) on 173 steel products ranging between USD 341 to USD 752 per tonne.

Besides this, the government had also imposed provisional Safeguard Duty in July 2015 and had increased import duty on certain steel products to keep a check on steel imports.

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