MINISTER OF CHEMICALS AND FERTILIZERS AND MINISTER OF STEEL (SHRI RAM VILAS PASWAN)
(a)The country-wise details of steel exports during the last 3 years is given in the Annexure.
(b) No, Sir.
(c) Does not arise in view of (b) above.
(d) The country-wise value of exports of iron and steel for the last three years is given in the Annexure.
(e) Government of India approved the Financial and Business restructuring
proposal of SAIL in February 2000 and a MoU was signed in March 2000, by
Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL) with Government of India for a time-
bound implementation of the plan.
(f) The details of the Financial and Business Restructuring plan and amount
released are as under-
Financial Restructuring
The measures in Financial restructuring comprised of:
- Waiver of loans advanced to SAIL from Steel Development Fund (SDF)
to the tune of about Rs. 5073 crore.
- Waiver of loan advanced to SAIL from Government of India to the tune
of about Rs. 381 crore
- Government guarantee to raise loan of Rs. 1500 crore to finance
Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS).
- Government guarantee to raise loan of Rs. 1500 crore to fulfill
repayment obligation.
As a part of financial restructuring, waiver of loans advanced from Steel
Development Fund (SDF) and from Government of India totaling Rs. 5454 crore,
were adjusted as –
(a) Rs. 3001 crore towards write down of fixed asset value relating to
capitalisation of interest on modernisation schemes which were primarily
funded out of borrowings;
(b)Rs. 2453 crore write off of loans/advances relating to IISCO operations.
Necessary asset adjustments based on waiver of loans have been completed in
financial year 2000. There was no cash infusion by the Government of India,
as part of the Financial Restructuring of SAIL.
Against the Government guarantee to raise loan of Rs. 1500 crore to
fulfil repayment obligation, Rs.1000 crore have so far been raised
with Government of India guarantee for funding the Voluntary Retirement
Scheme in 2001-2002, 2002-2003 and 2003-2004.
Business Restructuring
The Business Restructuring plan, inter-alia, consisted of the following:
- Restructuring of non-core assets
- Rightsizing of manpower
- Cost reduction by operational improvement
- Marketing initiatives
- Prioritisation of capital expenditure
- Purchase cost reduction
- Disposal of idle assets
SAIL has implemented most of the above measures.
(g)In a liberalised environment the Government acts as a facilitator and operational decisions are taken at the plant level.
However, domestic steel producers have taken steps to control rise in production costs, which include continuous
modernization/upgradation schemes, technological enhancements, efficient raw material utilization, better marketing
practices and review of manpower situation.
