The Refractory Industry of India which was trying desperately to reshuffle its position to evade its sorry state is sufficiently shocked by the 1995 Budget. The Government's rationalisation of customs duty for the last 3-4 years has become an important aspect of the liberalization process. The Union Budget 1995 has severely accentuated the anomalies in the customs duties between the raw materials and the finished refractories. The duty on finished refractories have so long been 65/40 percent depending on the specific category - the general run of refractories (alumina and basic) was 65 percent and the special shapes and specifications were at 40 percent. Relative to this, the duty on dead burnt magnesite, the most important raw material, earlier was 90 percent, that is about 50 to 100 percent more than on finished refractories, despite the fact that the cost of the raw material is about 65-70 percent of the factory cost of basic refractories.
展开▼
