New Delhi : Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) has written to the Steel Ministry for reconsideration of the Stainless Steel Products Quality Control (QC) Order, 2016, industry body PPMAI claimed on Wednesday.
Process Plant and Machinery Association of India (PPMAI) said DIPP, under the Commerce Ministry, has also urged for granting more time before implementing the QC order.
DIPP in its letter on August 22, 2016 has said that the ministry should engage with the stakeholders and more time should be given to the firms to comply with the said order, PPMAI said in a statement.
Various value added segments of downstream capital goods industry have been writing to concerned ministries, including the Steel Ministry, over the “major anomalies in the Quality Control order”, it added, reports PTI. The QC Order, 2016 makes it mandatory to register with BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards) and prohibits manufacture, import, storage, sale and distribution of stainless steel products by trade and industry without such registration. PPMAI said end user industry has been pointing out that BIS standard IS-6911 has errors, clearly showing that the standards are not ready to serve the needs of domestic industrial sector which buys stainless steel as per international standards.
No one buys stainless steel as per BIS standards and no stainless steel producer in India manufactures as per BIS norms, it added. “American Standards for Testing of Materials (ASTM) is considered mother of all standards and therefore stainless steel products as per ASTM and Euro standards should be allowed by the QC order along with BIS,” PPMAI Secretary V P Ramachandran said.