Government mulls “further steps” for survival of aluminium industry

<p>Indian government said yesterday that the centre is considering taking further actions in order to protect the interests of the domestic aluminium industry without affecting the interests of downstream industries.<br /><br /><img style="vertical-align: middle; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="http://www.alcircle.com/uploads/images/AluminiumTubes.jpg" alt="News" width="517" height="226" /><br />A Parliamentary Panel explained, "The mines ministry is again considering to take further steps for the survival of the aluminium industry. For this purpose, several meetings have been held with the representatives of primary producers of aluminium as well as secondary producers of aluminium/downstream industries."<br /><br />The Twelfth Report of the Committee on Public Undertakings on National Aluminium Company Ltd (Nalco) comprised observations/recommendations on the current industry situation worsened by the increased inflow of cheap aluminium imports.<br /><br />In the 2016-17 Budgets, finance minister has proposed increased basic import duty from 5 per cent to 7.5 per cent on primary aluminium products as well as a surge of 10 per cent from 7.5 per cent on other aluminium products, the report said.<br /><br />{googleAdsense}<br /><br />According to parliamentary panel, &ldquo;The committee notes with serious concern that the import duties on aluminium and aluminium scrap are having adverse impact on the profitability of Nalco's production business...&rdquo;<br /><br />&ldquo;As a result, the companies including Nalco are going for cost-cutting measures as well as retrenchments and laying off workers to survive," it concluded.</p>