Importers finding gaps in steel duty

Importers are finding ways to bypass the 12% safeguard duty on steel imports levied in this April, leading to a rout in local prices, even as import volumes come down, said Jayant Acharya, joint managing director of JSW Steel.

- Dipali Banka & Nehal Chaliawala

One of the workarounds is the misuse of the Advance Authorization Scheme, which allows duty-free imports of raw materials for export-linked production. Importers get 18 months to export the finished product to prevent paying the safeguard duty.