AP cabinet nod for concessions to greenfield steel plants

Hyderabad, Aug 1 (UNI) The Andhra Pradesh Cabinet today approved incentives to greenfield integrated steel plants or alloy steel units using blast furnace technology or direct reduction technology by including it in the State's Industrial Investment Promotion(IIP) policy.

The Cabinet decided to amend GO 178 issued by the Industries and Commerce Department in order to include greenfield integrated steel plants using blast furnace technology in the eligible list for concessions, Information Minister A Ramanarayan Reddy told reporters after a cabinet meeting.

Justifying the Cabinet decision to amend its IIP 2005-2010, the Minister said the amendment was necessitated as nobody envisaged earlier that integrated steel plant using blast furnace could come up in the private sector.

The State Investment Promotion Board at its meeting here on May 21, 2007 agreed to remove integrated steel plant or alloy steel units using blast furnace technology or direct reduction technology from the ineligible list of industries for incentives, he said, adding that the Cabinet today ratified the GO 163 dated June 25, 2007 to give effect to the Board's decision.

UNI