The government is considering a proposal to enact a 'Buy Indian Act' to protect the Indian steel industry, Rajya Sabha was informed on Friday.
The proposed legislation would make it mandatory for every public work or industry run with the aid of public funds to procure its iron and steel material from indigenous manufacturers, Minister of State for Steel B K Tripathy said in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha.
"The proposal was mooted at a time when the domestic industry had been passing through a severe crisis caused by low price and poor demand. The situation has shown improvement since January 2002 with the price of steel products on an increase and a fair amount of stability having been achieved," he added.
The reply did not give the status of the proposed legislation.
In reply to another question, Tripathy said the US administration has not invoked safeguard measures like steep import duties against the import of stainless steel items from India on the basis of recent complaints from its domestic industry.
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"However, protective measures taken earlier by the US administration continue," he said, mentioning about US steel producers complaining to its administration about the surge in
India's export of steel products to the USA and their demand that Indian products should be brought under the safeguard measures, popularly known as anti-dumping duties.