Metal Container Manufacturers’ Association suggested the union finance ministry to reduce the import duty on prime tinplate from 7.5 per cent to 5 per cent.
The association said this in a pre-Budget memorandum. It argues that the industry has not been able to make major investments for modernisation as the funds are blocked in cenvat and increase in customs duty from five to 7.5 per cent, affecting their competitiveness adversely.
However, recently Steel Secretary DRS Chaudhary said that the domestic metal container makers are not significantly impacted by the hike in import duty on prime tinplate to 7.5 per cent in the last budget.
Chaudhary said this in a recent letter to his Food Processing Industries’ counterpart Rakesh Kacker. The manufacturers of metal containers, which find use in packaging, an industry under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Food Processing Industries, imports tinplates to cater to the Rs 4,000 crore domestic metal containers market.
India consumes around five lakh tonne tinplates a year. Almost half of that is imported which comprises 35-40 per cent of seconds and defectives.
The government did not change duty on seconds imports in the last Budget, but increased the basic customs rate on prime tinplates from five per cent to 7.5 per cent.
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