Mr Beni Prasad Verma minister of Steel said that Indian government has notified 16 steel products, which have direct bearing on consumer health and safety and critical to infrastructure, under the Steel and Steel Products Order, 2012, which equally applies to import and domestic production.

Mr Verma said that implementation of the order does not prohibit import of steel in the country and it is also not intended to close small scale units.

He said “The order merely mandates that steel products produced in the country or imported must conform to the standards. The units have been given enough time to gear up to obtain BIS license & registration to be able to operate without interruption. Many of them have already obtained BIS license & registration.”

Further, government has deferred implementation of the order on some of the products to facilitate registration of remaining units with BIS.

Mr Verma said that the order does not favor the large scale producers as compared to small scale units, since it is uniformly applicable to both large and small scale producers.