While the BJP-led government at the Centre is giving shape to the marvellous and magnificent temple of Lord Rama at Ayodhya, Chief Minister of Congress-ruled Chhattisgarh Bhupesh Baghel is betting on Mata Kaushalya.
The state government is building a splendid temple at Chandkhuri, the birthplace of Lord Rama’s mother Mata Kaushalya. It is learnt to be the only temple of Mata Mata Kaushalya in the country.
“The bhoomipujan for building temple in Chandkhuri has already been performed and construction work will start from the third week of August,” Baghel said. The beautification works with an estimated cost of nearly Rs 15 crore are being executed in Chandkhuri, he added.
The Chief Minister directed the officials to build a bridge on the pond, along with circular path, well-equipped dharamshala and toilets. The temple lay-out depicts a marvellous structure.
Chhattisgarh has a glorious past associated with Ramayana. During Treta Yug, Chhattisgarh was known as Dakshin Kosal and Dandkaranya. During his 14-year exile, Lord Rama spent nearly four months at various places of Chhattisgarh. The Bhupesh Baghel government is also expediting Ram Van Gaman Marg project to develop the places where Lord Rama visited as enchanting tourist destination.
Lord Rama had entered Chhattisgarh from a place named Harchauka Sitamadi via Gawai river of Koriya District. Meanwhile, he travelled 75 places before he reached Ramaram of Sukma district, down in the south.
Why there should not be any Export Duty on
On Pellets..?
Chhattisgarh based Association –CGSIMA wants imposition of 30% Export Duty on Iron ore Pellet..
Most interestingly this alleged request for imposition of export duty on Pellets is coming from a local Sponge Iron body in Chhattisgarh, and not from any All India body of sponge iron producers that is Sponge Iron Manufacturers Association (SIMA) needs a study.
The above representation seems to be a sponsored by vested interest who have won iron ore mines in Odisha in the current E-Auction. It is obvious that if duty is levied on Iron Ore Pellets, the export of pellets will completely stop resulting in huge surplus of iron ore pellet in the country due to poor demand in the domestic market,. This will lead to reduction in prices of Pellet and hence reduction in prices of Iron Ore Lumps and Iron Ore fines. This reduction in prices will give benefit to the miners who have taken mines in the e-auction as they will end up paying less premium. Premium is linked to IBM Average monthly sales price and any decrease in prices of iron ore in the respective states will obviously lead to reduction in prices as declared by IBM, because IBM takes the average of sales price of the non-captive miners in the state to deduce the monthly average sales price of iron ore. Final outcome will be lower premium being paid by such miners to the Government and hence huge loss of revenue to the ex-chequer.
Out of total pellet production of 55.35 lakh tonnes in 2019-20 only 8.87 lakh tonnes was exported which is 16.03 %.
The All India Status of Pellet:Production, Consumption, Domestic Sales And Export is as under:
a. In 2019-20, iron ore production by NMDC was 5.4 Mn tonnes per annum against which the off-take by Chhattisgarh based industries was just 2.02 Mn tonnes which is 40% approx. The off-take of rakes from NMDC drastically got reduced from mid Jan 2020 – March 2020 as the price shot up on 18th Jan 2020 and was high till March 2020. This was also the case in July 2019 – Sept 2019 .Sponge iron producers in Chhattisgarh have Iron Ore in abundance in the state. They reduce the off-take from NMDC if NMDC increases the price and start taking pellet and the off-take from NMDC increases if NMDC reduces the price. This is just to create an unhealthy pricing competition between Pellet Producers and Commercial Iron Ore Producer which is NMDC in Chhattisgarh.
b. Pellet production depends a lot on the demand (both domestic and export). Looking at the erratic buying behaviour in the state of Chhattisgarh, the Pellet Producers have to resort to other options like Export.
c. It is pertinent to mention here that when NMDC used to allocate Iron Ore quantity for Chhattisgarh parties through CSIDC, there was very less off-take against the allocation, as these parties used to source the raw material from states like Odisha.for example in the year 2012-13 (as this was the earliest data available), the off-take by CG parties was just 23.6 lakh tonnes as against the allocated quantity of 50 lakh tonnes. This clearly shows that when Pellet was not an option, all Chhattisgarh parties used to adopt the pressure tactics to reduce price of iron ore by bargaining with Odisha miners and NMDC. Now since Pellet is available in abundance, the pressure tactics for price reduction is being managed between Odisha miners, Pellet Producers in the state and NMDC.
d. Pellet producers have always kept the price in parity with the NMDC iron ore price so that market can remain competitive and concern over the price as alleged by Sponge Iron Producers does not arise.
e. Pellet utilizes Iron Ore fines which otherwise was considered waste .Iron oxide pellets are value added industry and require iron ore fines of various grades as feedstock. The Steel industry (JPC report) and even the MoEF, consider the Pellets as a Primary Value Added product. The value addition in case of Pellet is about 50% as against the value addition of 9-25% in other steel products in the entire Steel Value Chain.
f. Pellet manufacturing is an eco-friendly and value addition industry contributing significantly by providing direct feed stock for DRI/ Blast Furnace and simultaneously contributing towards conservation of minerals in the country where about 65- 70% of iron ore production is in the form of fines.
g. Setting up pelletisation plant is a highly capital intensive industry requiring technology & equipment from other countries, the Union Government in FY2011-12 had reduced the basic customs duty on plant and machinery from 7.5% to 2.5% and provided full exemption from export duty for development of this nascent technology. However, till FY 15 when export duty on Pellet was 5% (though very nominal), the pellet industry was in very bad shape and most of the Pellet Plants were operating below 50% capacity resulting in delayed payment of wages, deferment of Bank loan repayment, retrenchment of employees etc.
h. To provide a boost to the pellet industry as per the spirit of Make in India initiative, the government on 09.05.2016 rationalized railway freight by making at par with domestic freight and continued no export duty on pellets which facilitated the domestic pellet industry to compete with big pellet producing countries like Brazil, US, Sweden, Russia etc where their respective governments had also kept pellets free from export duty.
i. National Steel Policy of 2017 also provided desired impetus for growth of Pellet Industry in the country. The government support as per Make in India initiative helped the recovery of the industry in terms of improved plant utilization from 58% in FY 16 to 78% in FY20 and higher earning of foreign exchange to the tune of USD 1448 million in FY 20 with growth of 24% y-o-y basis.
Therefore any imposition of export duty on Pellets will lead to stoppage of export and this will lead to bankruptcy and shut down of their units. Huge investments will go bad accompanied by increase in Bank NPAs, unemployment and loss of revenue for the ex-chequer. The survival of Pellet Industry due fluctuating domestic demand is always under question and Exports are the only option left with the Pellet Producers. Besides Exports brings in valuable foreign exchange for the country and imposition of 30% Export Duty on Iron Ore Pellets will be detrimental to growth of Industries and will also be unfriendly to Economy driven production ideology.