Only surplus iron ore to be exported: Committee

New Delhi, July 17 (UNI) The Parliamentary Consultative Committee of the Steel Ministry today said that exports of iron ore should be resorted to only if there is a surplus.

The members of the consulative committee were of the opinion that the demand for iron ore from the domestic producers must be met first. The issue came up during the meeting of the Steel Ministry held here to discuss the functioning of the Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), Visakhapatnam.

Members demanded a complete ban on the export of iron ore while others in the committee said RINL should be given captive iron ore mines on lease.

Initiating the discussion Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said, production of steel in the country went up by 10.9 percent during 2006- 07 and reached 49.39 Million Tones (MT).

The revised target for 2010 has been set at 80 MT against the earlier target of 65 MT and the target for 2020 has been set at 200 MT. The two steel majors in the public sector, the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) and the Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) have initiated major expansion plans.

Mr Paswan said RINL expansion plan involves a capital outlay of Rs 8,692 crore to raise its capacity to 6.3 MT from the current level of 3.4 MT. SAIL is also implementing its expansion plan to raise its capacity to 24 MT from the present 14.6 MT with an investment of over Rs 40,000 crore.

He added, the public sector undertakings under the Ministry of Steel have earned a net profit of Rs 15,500 crore in FY 07 against Rs 11,500 crore in the previous year.

Expressing satisfaction over the functioning of RINL the Minister said the company is running at nearly 120 per cent of its installed capacity for the last few years. Mr Paswan said, the company, which was referred to BIFR, started earning profit from 2002-03 and has totally wiped out the accumulated losses and is one of the most efficient steel makers in the country today.

Mr Paswan said both SAIL and RINL have been given operational freedom to take investment decisions, which he said should be transparent without compromising with quality.

He added his ministry reviews the performance of the companies on quarterly basis and also compares their performance on different parameters with private sector companies.

SAIL and RINL have been asked to spend two percent of their net profit under Corporate Social Responsibility Scheme for wider benefit of the common people, particularly those living in the peripheral areas of the factory and the mines, Mr Paswan said.

RINL, he said, is involved in conducting health melas, distributing artificial limbs and improving educational infrastructure and other such activities.

In his presentation the Chairman and Managing Director of RINL P K Bishnoi said the company which has earned mini-ratna status is focusing on increasing production of value added steel to keep its bottom line rising.

Mr Bishnoi said the company has excelled in various parameters like asset utilisation, energy consumption, and specific water consumption and labour productivity.

Members of the Consultative Committee cautioned RINL to ensure that there is no cost and time overrun in implementing the expansion programme.

They also advised the company to fill up all vacant post for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and also allot district level dealers from SC, ST and OBC categories.

UNI