Protection for steel industry

GENERAL satisfaction will be felt with the first report of the Indian Tariff Board, appointed in July last in conformity with the recommendation made by the Fiscal Commission, for the purpose of considering and reporting on applications made by Indian industrialists for the grant of protection in the form of bounties and tariff duties on imported goods. The report has just been published and, as was anticipated, has unanimously recommended varying protection for five out of the eight steel products that applied for protection. It is impossible to conceive of a stronger case for protection than that of the steel industry, which not only satisfies the conditions laid down by the commission but is also an industry essential for the purpose of self-defence, besides being of great importance on national grounds. It must be admitted that the whole of the mechanical industry of today depends almost entirely upon iron and steel, and it may rightly be said that modernism itself stands on a steel pedestal. The present age of steel is the most modern phase of a long process in which stone, bronze and iron have each played in succession an important part. This being so, it remained for the board only to see if the steel industry was suited to India and, if so, whether it was placed in India, at the present time, in a disadvantageous position as compared with that in foreign countries. The board received 103 written statements and examined 41 witnesses and has come to the conclusion that India possesses great natural advantages for the manufacture of steel.

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