Budget 2020: Changes in Duty Structure for Steel Industry

The Union Budget announced by Niramala Sitharaman on 05th July'19 bought news for significant investments to be made in construction, infrastructure, housing and railways sector. This move will surely benefit the Indian steel industry in the long run. However no major changes in duty structure were proposed, except hike in customs duty on stainless steel and other alloy steel from 5% to 7.5% in order to benefit the domestic industry.

Also, customs duty on inputs for the manufacture of CRGO steel: - (1) MgO coated cold rolled steel coils 2) Hot rolled coils 3) Cold-rolled MgO coated and annealed steel 4) Hot rolled annealed and pickled coils 5) Cold rolled full hard) has been reduced from 5% to 2.5%.

-- Import duty on iron ore remains unchanged at 2.5%
-- Export duty on iron ore pellets continues to remain nil
--Low grade iron ore export duty remains unchanged at 0% while that of high grade ore at 30%
--Import duty on coking coal remains intact at 2.5% and that for Met coke at 5%
--Export duty on Graphite Electrodes remains unchanged at 0%
--Customs duty on HRC imports remains intact at 12.5% for imports from China and nil from FTA countries (Japan & South Korea)
--Anti dumping duties imposed on HRC, HR plates, CRC and PPGI for 5 years continue to remain in place

Outlook - As per reports, the Indian steel industry is awaiting announcement on safeguard duty of 25% on ad valorem on a wide range of steel products in order to compete with increase in imports.

Link to the duty structure of various iron & steel commodities