VISAKHAPATNAM: Even as the agitation opposing the strategic sale of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant has been gaining strength with the support of all sections of people, the demand for forming a single mega steel giant merging SAIL, RINL, NMDC and NINL has come into focus again. The RINL strategic sale plan is currently before the inter-ministerial group of Nirmala Sitaraman, Debendra Pradhan and Nitin Gadkari.
The national executive council of the Steel Executives Federation of India (SEFI) has recently passed a resolution seeking strategic merger of the steel public sector units in the country.
“A single mega steel unit should be formed by merging steel plants of Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) and its subsidiary units with Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL) and its subsidiary company, Neelachal Ispat Nigam Ltd, NMDC (both steel plant and mining sector) and MECON under the Union Ministry of Steel,” SEFI chairman Narendra Kumar Banchor and general secretary Bimal Kumar Bisi said. They said this will help the country achieve the target of 300 MT steel production by 2030 as envisaged under the National Steel Policy.
The steel giant plan was first raised by former SAIL chairman Sushil Kumar Roongta before demitting office. Roongta then said there was a lot of synergy between RINL and SAIL and the government should consider the merger. In 2006-07 also, there were efforts to merge the SAIL and RINL, but it did not materialise due to political compulsions. Later, the Parliamentary Committee for PSUs, in its report submitted in March 2013, recommended the merger of RINL and SAIL.
The committee had then felt that the merger will help the two state-owned steel makers grow globally and bring down cost of production. However, the government remained silent on the report.
After the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) decided on the strategic sale of Vizag steel plant, the merger issue came into focus again. Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, in his letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has proposed merger of steel plant with SAIL as one of alternatives to save the steel plant.
Former CBI joint director VV Lakshminarayana, in a writ petition filed against the privatisation in the High Court, also mentioned the merger of steel giants as one of the measures to save the plant. Lakshminarayana said as a fist step RINL should be merged with NMDC as it will resolve the captive mines issue. After that, NMDC-RINL should be merged with SAIL as part of a mega steel giant. In the second stage, Kudremukh iron ore and Neelachal Ispat Nigam Limited may also be considered for the merger.
He said the steel giant is likely to result in reduction of cost of raw material and production due to resource sharing. It will pave the way for expansion of the production to 75 MPTA.It may be recalled that a delegation of State BJP leaders, who met the union ministers a few weeks back, has also suggested the mega steel giant proposal.Steel Executives Association (SEA) RINL general secretary P Satyanarayana, who attended the SEFI meeting in New Delhi on Sunday evening, told TNIE that the SEFI unanimously passed the resolution on merger of steel giants. He said the SEFI will submit the resolution copies to the Union Finance Minister, Steel Minister and PMO.
Satyanarayana said the proposal, if materialised, will be a win-win situation for all steel PSUs and it will also help them overcome the production related issues. He said the SEFI national leaders also lauded the efforts of the RINL employees against privatisation.Representatives of Officers Association of SAIL, including Bokaro, Bhilai, Rourkela, Durgapur, Burnpur, Salem, Bhadravati, Chandrapur,CMO,RMD, Ranchi, Steel Executives’ Association, RINL Visakhapatnam, Officers Association of NINL Duburi, and NSOA attended the meeting and unanimously passed the resolution.