“CII welcomes the initiative of Steel & Mines Minister Shri Narendra Singh Tomar to meet the industry & discuss for Steel & Mines”, stated Mr Chandrajit Bannerjee, Director General speaking on the occasion of the interaction of the CII delegation on Steel and Mines with the Minister and the senior officials of the two Ministries.
A strong CII delegation met the Minister of Steel & Mines Mr Narendra Tomar, accompanied by Mr G Mohan Kumar, Secretary Steel and Dr Anup Pujari, Secretary Mines. The delegation included industry stalwarts like Mr B Muthuraman, Past President, CII and Vice Chairman, Tata Steel; Mr.C.S.Verma, Chairman CII National Committee on Steel and Chairman SAIL, Mr Sajjan Jindal, JSW Steel; Mr Firdose Vandrevala, Mg Director, Essar Steel; Mr Tom Albanese, CEO, Sesa Sterlite. Mr Balakrishnan, Mg Director, Anglo American,
Mr C S Verma, made a strong plea for reinvigorating the Steel industry. Discussion points made included : Land acquisition for new projects are enormously time consuming. Some examples were cited of plants waiting for more the 10 years to commence operations. The new LARR Bill needs to be reviewed. Requesting for an infrastructure status for the steel industry, CII members urged the Minister to consider the four strong measures to address the growing difficulties and putting the economy on the higher growth path. These include sufficient availability of iron ore to all domestic steel plants; allocating the entire coking coal reserves for the exclusive use of the Indian steel industry, bringing these reserves entirely under the control of the ministry of mines; Rationalization of railway freight; review downwards the very high taxes & duties and; re-visit the bilateral trade agreements with a view to promote a India First or India Right strategy.
CII also urged the Govt to seriously consider investment in R&D and technology. On Mining, CII urged the government to bring out an investor friendly mining reforms agenda. Mr Nik Senapati, Chairman, CII Mining Committee and Mg Director, Rio Tinto strongly asked for streamlining and simplifying the Mining lease clearance & grant of RP/ PL/ML process.
The CII delegation impressed upon the Minister that the present levels of taxes were making mining un-remunerative and there was a need to rationalize these in line with the international benchmarks. New mines are getting into the prohibitive range with the proposed increase in royalty. Exploration needs a boost, while clearances from MOEF must to be timebound. The CII members requested the Minister to put in a system leading to seamless transfer of licenses from one stage to another. Option of selling out of licence would make the mining more attractive to investments and bring more competent players in the field.
“In this exclusive interaction with the CII Steel and Mining members, it was decided that CII would work together with the government bringing together a comprehensive & consensus agenda for both Steel and mining sector reforms,” stated Mr Chandrajit Bannerjee, Director General, CII
The Minister responded positively by re-iterating the Government’s commitment to encourage industry and implement a time bound agenda for growth of industry. He stated that transparency is a key focus of the govt and any policies or reforms that the govt brings in would keep that priority.
New Delhi