NEW DELHI: Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday said the government has initiated several measures to deal with the problem of bad debt and more are on the anvil to protect the domestic steel industry, which he identified as the one of the main contributors, along with power and roads.
"Highest NPAs are in steel sector... Second is national highways. Imported steel is cheaper than domestically manufactured steel. Wherever steel dumping is happening, we have imposed anti-dumping (duty). In some cases, import duty has been increased. There are other such proposals before the government and efforts will be made to encourage domestic industry," he said while replying to a discussion on supplementary demands for grant.
He said the government endeavour to promote sale of domestic steel and higher economic activity would result in higher consumption and more competitive prices. While identifying stalled highway projects as the second major source of NPAs, Jaitley blamed UPA for the debt problem in power.
"It was very typical case under the UPA government of crony capitalism. Everybody decided to loot coal mines. You created surplus capacity and industrial growth was slow," he said. A situation had been reached where there was surplus power and power companies which had taken contracts were unable to sell power, he said.
Further, he said electricity distribution companies in states were reeling under poor finances due to heavy losses. "If you are going to lose Re 1 or Rs 2 per unit, how are you going to finance it. Tax all the people and finance it or you take loan from bank and finance it. Now if state government has decided not to charge even cost of power, some state governments' distribution companies are in bad shape," he said.
