Sunil Chordia, chairman of SWMAI, said that the PMO and ministry of steel should take an early decision in this regard.
The association felt that the government should treat wire rod as raw material for the steel wire industry and the duty should be at par with scrap.
The main reason behind the demand was frequent increase in prices. Wire manufacturers sourced around 60 per cent of their raw material from primary producers.
Chordia said, in the wake of the price hikes, domestic availability of wire rod should be supplemented by imports.
The association also highlighted the fact that the Supreme Court had decided that the process of drawing wires from wire rods was not excisable.
According to Chordia, the judgement had broken the value chain system and the input to the industry would become expensive.
The association would therefore like the ministry of finance to take an early decision so that steel wire manufacturers willing to pay excise were able to avail of the MODVAT benefit and to pass on the benefit to customers.
Further, SWMAI requested main producers of wire rods that against submission of advance licence to them, steel wire exporters should get wire rods at international FOB prices.
Chordia said, export of wire rods to Nepal was leading to dumping of steel wires. Owing to export incentives enjoyed by steel wire manufacturers in Nepal, Indian steel wire manufacturers were finding it difficult to compete effectively against them.
He said, suitable protection measures should be adopted in case of steel wires like the central government had done for products like vanaspati, steel tubes, among others.
