GOVERNMENT ANNOUNCES REVIVAL PACKAGE FOR B R L
STEEL CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE
MEETS AT DURGAPUR
The Minister of Steel,
Shri Braja Kishore Tripathy, today announced the Government's
approval to a special package for the revival of the Bharat Refractories
Limited (BRL), Bokaro. It includes Rs.90 crore Non-plan Loan for
VRS for reducing manpower from 2766 to 1311, Rs.55 crore Non-plan
Loan for clearing statutory liabilities, Rs.35 crore equity substitutions
for addition, modification and replacement schemes, a moratorium
on repayment of loan and interest upto 2010-11, and Rs.30 crore
Government guarantee for raising working capital. The Minister
was addressing here the Consultative Committee meeting attached
to his Ministry.
The Minister said,
the Government has already approved a proposal for revival of
the ailing Indian Iron and Steel Company (IISCO), Burnpur, West
Bengal, a subsidiary of the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL).
The approval is subject to the West Bengal government's full and
final approval to provide exemption from payment of Sales Tax
(without any monetary ceiling), electricity duty, royalty, cess
and municipal taxes for five years. He said that the issue was
being pursued with the Government of West Bengal. At the same
time, the government is intensifying efforts for joint venture
participation for revival of IISCO.
Outlining the revival
package, the Minister said that it includes Government grants
for financing the VRS in Kulti Works. Provision for Government
guaranty for financing the VRS for the Burnpur Works and Mines
and Collieries, with partial interest subsidy. Besides SDF loan
of Rs.44.68 crore advanced to IISCO and JPC dues of Rs.18.49 crore
have been waived. He advised SAIL to chalk out a plan for the
company's revival and to submit to BIFR.
The meeting discussed
the worst ever situation in the steel sector in the last three
years and the emerging trend during the last six months. The Minister
said, 2001-02 has witnessed a growth of 2.5 per cent in steel
production, which was approximately 30 million tonnes. The production
of pig iron, during the year, was 3.95 million tonnes registering
a growth of 16.2 per cent. The consumption is nearly 27 million
tonnes up by 1.77 per cent than the previous year. India has exported
3 million tonnes of finished steel during the year and imported
1.38 million tonnes.
Shri Tripathy asked
the Steel Industry to gear up their products according to the
specific consumer demands, and gradually become more specific
in terms of size, quality, tolerance and application. He stressed
on qualitative improvement, value addition, market orientation
and resource optimization to bring about a turn around in the
industry.
Referring to the
implementation of the financial and restructuring package of SAIL,
he said that the PSU has achieved remarkable success in reducing
energy consumption and coke consumption rate. It has taken a number
of steps to combat the declining profitability and minimized its
losses. He hoped that with the envisaged cyclical recovery in
the steel sector, SAIL would recover to make profit.
The members of the
Committee drew the attention of the Minister to the revision of
the duty structure to suit the industry and take possible steps
to increase the consumption of steel within the country. They
stressed on reduction of the period of export commitment against
duty-free licenses to a maximum of three months. They also advised
the ministry to persuade integrated steel plants to help grow
the ancillary industries and secondary steel plants.
Dr. S.K.Bhattacharyya,
Managing Director, Durgapur Steel Plant, on this occasion gave
a presentation of achievements of the Plant during 2001-02 and
the impact of modernization on production, productivity, sales
and techno-economic parameters. The members of the Consultative
Committee asked DSP to raise its capacity utilization to 110 percent
in all sectors during this fiscal and to make all out efforts
to earn net profit. The Minister said that Rs.110 crore Wire Rod
Mill as demanded by the DSP employees, is being taken up immediately
and the installation of Bloom Caster has been included in the
Tenth Five-Year Plan.
The following members
of Parliament were present at the meeting:
S/Shri Tilakdhari
Prasad Singh, Lal Muni Choubey, Manoj Sinha, Sohan Potal, Shriram
Chauhan and Jibon Roy.
