Gzb fiasco leaves officials wringing hands

NEW DELHI: The blast at the Bhushan Steel premises seems to have finally woken the Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) out of its slumber. It has forced CBEC officials to hold a series of meetings on whether metal scrap trade from "war zones" should be banned altogether and bring drastic changes in the existing norms for scrap import.
It appears customs officials were aware of the lurking danger in allowing metal scrap trade in its present form.In the last six months several meetings had been held on the issue but nothing concrete came out of them. According to sources, the Bhushan Steel has made CBEC contemplate a complete ban on scrap metal trade from war zones, on the lines of the developed countries.
"We have been getting several reports from the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Central Economic Intelligence Bureau (CEIB), and several of our chief commissioners from different parts of the country have been warning us that this metal scrap trade should immediately be stopped or we should go for 100% examination of the containers away from the Inland Container Depots in some safe place," said an official.
A source in CBEC said that this blast is embarrassing for the Board because barely over a month ago Kolkata customs had expressed apprehension that a blast of this nature was in the offing.
That the Kolkata customs suspected many places in the country to be sitting on a powder keg was evident when it said in a public notice that 100% examination of metal scrap consignments was necessary and that a pre-shipment certificate should be asked for if the consignment was from a country affected by a war or rebellion.
"The decision by our department to suspend two of its officials at the Inland Container Depot at Tuglaqabad, after the Bhushan Steel blast case is a knee-jerk reaction. There are several days in a month when we have to clear 80-90 containers in a jiffy, lest we be blamed for harming the importer''s interest.
The truth is that the government is trying to achieve industrial competitiveness by importing cheap scrap from war zone," said an official.
Sources in CBEC hinted that it will never be "an easy decision" for the finance ministry to ban metal scrap trade from the war zone.
"We know that these imports of metal scrap are imperative for the survival of secondary steel industry. Import of cheap iron scrap is something a developing country like India can''t do away with easily," said an official.
"Importing scrap from countries affected by war is a strict no-no in developed countries. In India, however, the considerable difference in prices has ensured that it has turned into a norm.
In fact, no business organisation would settle for a complete ban on scrap import as the global trade has become highly competitive," said a CBEC source.