The All-India Non-Ferrous Metal Exim Association (ANMA) has urged the Indian government not to implement BIS quality standards on aluminium scrap imports. Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) is India’s national standards body.
Jayant Jain, honorary secretary of ANMA emphasized that India’s neighbouring countries do not have import duty on aluminium scrap as against India’s 2.5pc duty.
The decision to levy import duty is influenced by primary aluminium producers in the country said Jain at the annual general meeting of ANMA held in Ahmedabad. He added primary producers are pressurising the government to put BIS standards in place, and the implementation of which he believes is impossible.
Secondary producers in India export recycled aluminium products to China, Japan, Taiwan, and Indonesia. The state of Gujarat alone imports 35,000-40,000mt of aluminium scrap and has 500 aluminium recycling units accounting for 30pc of the total aluminium recycling units in the country.
ANMA members are ready to cooperate if the government decides to implement standards for products made using recycled aluminium as raw material, he added.
Furthermore, recyclers are seeking a “level playing field” with primary aluminium producers like Hindalco and Vedanta, he said and added that recyclers are almost zero waste industries and unlike primary producers, they don’t generate red mud which is difficult to dispose of and has the potential to pollute soil and water.