Kolkata, West Bengal
The Union
Cabinet approved Rs 63.22 billion for the production-linked incentive (PLI)
scheme for speciality steel. This move is expected to attract an investment of
about Rs 400 billion, capacity addition of 25 million tonnes and create 52.5
billion jobs. Of the jobs created, 68,000 will be direct employment.
The PLI scheme
will include five categories of speciality steel – Coated/Plated steel
products, High strength/Wear resistant steel, Speciality rails, Alloy steel
products and steel wires, Electrical steel.
The government
chose speciality steel because out of a production of 102 million tonnes of
steel in 2020-21, only 18 million tonnes of value-added steel/speciality steel
were produced in the country. Of the 6.7 million tonnes of imports in 2020-21,
4 million tonnes were of speciality steel. This resulted in forex outgo of
approximately Rs 300 billion.
The PLI
incentives comes in three slabs, with the lowest being 4% and the highest being
12%. The duration of the scheme will be five years, from 2023-24 to 2027-28.
The government expects integrated steel plants and smaller secondary steel
players to benefit from the scheme.
The government
statement noted that the PLI scheme will ensure that the country will
produce and consume approximately Rs 2.5 trillion worth of speciality steel
which would otherwise have been imported. Similarly, the export of speciality
steel will also increase to 5.5 million tonnes as against the current 1.7 million
tonnes. This would bring forex of Rs 330 billion.
Speciality steel
is used in various strategic applications such as defence, space, power,
automobile sector, specialised capital goods, among others.
Source – Business Standard
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