Govt urged to protect steel industry

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) has urged that the government should take immediate steps to avoid steel industry crisis in the country. The demand was made during the meeting of a delegation of Islamabad’s steel re-rolling mills, led by Karim Aziz Malik, and Zubair Ahmed Malik, president, ICCI, here Friday, said a press statement. The two sides discussed the crisis faced by the country’s steel industry because of non-availability of raw material which had led to increase the prices by Rs 5,700 per ton. The millers said that to avoid the crisis government should reduce the duty which is 10 percent and general sales tax which is 20 percent following the Indian government model which had reduced the Sales Tax from 16 percent to eight percent. China is the largest producer of steel and China imports 25 million tons of raw material from European markets. The delegation informed the ICCI chief that steel and iron products are selling in the markets at the price of Rs 53,000 per ton and government should take immediate steps to decrease the prices. —Staff Report

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