Centre to look into steel regulatory body proposal

A proposal to set up a Steel Regulatory Authority will be submitted to the Union Cabinet in the next three months, Ram Vilas Paswan, Union minister of steel, chemicals and fertilisers, said yesterday.

"Actually, this proposal was not mine. The entire steel industry, including public and private steel producers, jointly proposed this. My interest is that the steel industry should grow in the country while steel consumers should not be exploited by middle men in the country," Paswan said at a media conference.

"To this end we want to put some kind of regulatory authority to control prices for the benefit of the common steel consumer in the country.The proposed steel regulatory authority would be an independent authority and government will not interfere in the functions of the authority. However, the Union Cabinet would take a final decision on this matter," he said.

The government has also asked the authorities concerned to explore all possibilities inside and outside India to mitigate the coking coal shortage problem that the steel industry is facing, he said.

The steel industry in the country needs around 30 million tonnes of coking coal every year but the country is producing only four million tonnes.

"We want to increase coking coal production in Indian mines and at the same time the government is thinking of taking over some coking coal mines outside India, especially in Australia," he said.

The Steel Ministry has targeted to increase the steel production to 60 million tonnes by 2012 and 100 million tonnes by 2020 in the country.

Keeping these targets in view the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant's capacity will be increased to seven million tonnes by 2012 with an investment of Rs 10, 000 crore and the required funds will be generated through internal accruals only, he revealed.

The Visakhapatnam Steel Plant has been recording profits for the last two years and it will get a mini-navaratna status very shortly, he announced.

The steel ministry is also negotiating with the Chhattisgarh government to acquire captive iron ore mine for VSP's needs, he said.