Steel ministry not to intervene on pricing issue
BL reported that Mr Ram Vilas Paswan union steel minister has ruled out any intervention by his ministry in the steel pricing issue.
The report quoted Mr Paswan on the sidelines of the International Petrochem Conference as saying that "The last time we had called for a meeting with steel producers there had been some criticism. I will not call for another round of meeting. I leave it to them to decide on price hikes based on market conditions."
He said that "Such interventions were not good for the industry's health. Also, it tended to send a signal that the Government wanted to interfere."
He added that in any case state owned steel producers accounted for only 30% of the domestic steel production and the rest is from the private sector.
Mr Paswan however warned that if the steel makers hiked prices unreasonably, the ministry could step in. He said the "Ministry has a benchmark ratio that indicated the maximum hike that the producers could make, given the prevailing cost of key inputs and other market conditions. If the prices go over this limit, we will have to intervene. We have a committee, which closely monitors steel prices."
Steel ministry had called for three meetings in the recent past with steel producers, with the last two resulting in price cuts of about INR 2,000 and INR 1,000 per tonne respectively.
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