Steel Secretary to visit Visakhapatnam steel plant on January 28

Visakha Ukku Parirakshana Porata Committee prepares to discuss key issues with Union Steel Secretary during plant visit.

Even as leaders of the Visakha Ukku Parirakshana Porata Committee were planning to commemorate January 27, the day when the Centre announced the strategic sale of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL), the corporate entity of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP), in 2021, they were informed on Saturday that Union Steel Secretary Sandeep Poundrik would visit the plant on January 28 and hold an internal review meeting with the executive cadre.

The official was likely to discuss the ₹11,440 crore revival package recently announced by the Centre.

The committee members were hoping that the Secretary would also hold discussions with the union leaders on that day. If that happened, the committee members might bring four key issues to his notice.

The first was about merging RINL with the Steel Authority of India Limited. The second was about allocating captive mines to the plant. Since inception, the plant did not have its own mines. Due to this, the steel plant was spending more to buy iron ore from various sources, including NMDC mines in Chhattisgarh.

The third point was the tax holiday for four years. RINL-VSP had paid about ₹54,000 crore in taxes to the State and Central governments since its inception. If a tax holiday of four years wsas provided, about ₹14,000 crore could be saved.

The fourth was about registering the steel plant lands in the name of RINL-VSP. Currently, the lands were registered in the name of the President. If that happened, the value of the steel plant land would be about ₹70,000 crore.

Speaking to The Hindu, J. Ayodhya Ramu, one of the committee’s core team members, said, “If given an opportunity, we will take up these four points with the Steel Secretary. We have also learnt that he is visiting the plant on January 28. We are entering the fifth year of the agitation against the strategic sale of the plant.”