Friday, August 1, 2008

Steel Ministry has asked sail not to hike price after 7th August says Steel Minister; hopes the Steel Industry will not hike price

The Minister for Steel, Chemicals and Fertilisers Shri Ram Vilas Paswan has expressed the hope that the steel industry will not raise prices after 7th August in national interest. Talking to newsmen he said Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) has been asked not to hike prices. Shri Paswan said, in view of the exceptional situation, he would like the industry to cooperate. He said the government wants the steel industry to prosper and is giving facilities directly and indirectly to favourably impact the cost. But so long as the industry earns reasonable profit, where is the need to raise prices, he asked. 

The Minister was speaking after receiving the final dividend cheque of Rs.49.10 crore from the Manganese Ores India Limited (MOIL) here today. The cheque was presented by the Chairman and Managing Director of MOIL Shri K.L. Mehrotra. With this the total dividend paid to the government for FY 08 goes up to Rs.78.80 crore at 345 per cent of the equity. The company had earlier paid an interim dividend of Rs.29.69 crore. 

During 2007-08, MOIL produced 13.65 lakh tonnes manganese ore, a rise of over 30 percent compared to the previous year. The total income went up by 128 percent to Rs.1030.00 crore and net profit rose to Rs. 479.82 crore. Minister of State for Steel, Shri Jitin Prasada, the outgoing Steel Secretary Shri R.S. Pandey and other senior officials were present. 

During the first quarter of this year from April to June 08, the turnover of MOIL shot up to Rs 603.19 crore from Rs.174.35 crore during the same period last year. Net profit rose by nearly five fold from Rs. 53.36 crore to Rs. 318.33 crore. The company has commissioned a 500,000 tonnes per annum integrated Manganese Beneficiation plant at Balaghat in September last year and has also commissioned a 15.2 MW wind energy plant taking its wind energy capacity to 20MW.

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