The government today said it will remove hurdles impeding steel sector growth and help the domestic industry achieve 300 million tonnes (MT) annual production by 2025.
"An inter-ministerial meeting will be held early next week to address all issues impeding steel sector's growth. Steel production is not up to mark but we are confident that we will boost it," Steel and Mines Minister Narendra Singh Tomar told reporters after a CII delegation called on him.
The constraints raised by the industry related to land acquisition, connectivity, infrastructure, raw material availability and timely regulatory approvals.
"Coal and Power Minister Piyush Goyal and Environment and Forest Minister Prakash Javadekar will also be participating in the meet to address hurdles related to green nods and coal linkages," Tomar said.
Sesa Sterlite CEO, Tom Albanese, who was also part of the CII delegation said after the meeting, "I am very very pleased to see the government taking such a strong proactive stance to create a strong industry."
Meanwhile, an official statement by the Steel Ministry said, "The industry expressed its confidence that the target of 300 MT of steel production per annum by 2025 would be possible if the various constraints were addressed
At least 200 MT new steel capacity is needed to take the country's steel output to 300 MT.
Last year, it was decided in a high-level meeting that push will be given towards creating domestic manufacturing capabilities in advanced materials, alloys and composites and also treble the country's steel production capacity to 300 MT by 2025.
At present, the country's crude capacity for steel production is 96 MT per annum.
The CII delegation which called on the Minister included SAIL CMD CS Verma, Rio Tinto India MD Nik Senapati, Sesa Sterlite CEO Tom Albanese and and JSW Group Chairman Sajjan Jindal.
Meanwhile, welcoming the initiative by the Steel and Mines Minister to meet the industry, CII in a statement said SAIL Chairman C S Verma made a strong plea for reinvigorating the steel industry.
CII also urged the government 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 Managing Director, Rio Tinto strongly asked for streamlining and simplifying the Mining lease clearance & grant of RP/ PL/ML process," the statement
said.
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 Chandrajit Bannerjee, Director General, CII.
The statement said Tomar assured them of positive steps stressing that "transparency is a key focus of the government and any policies or reforms that the government brings in would keep that priority."
Source: ET
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