The government is planning stricter norms for import of steel scrap. The Directorate General of Foreign Trade, the nodal agency for foreign trade matters, is expected to issue a notification this week that will make it mandatory for importers to furnish proof that imported consignments have no traces of radioactivity.
“The notification is expected to be released in a couple of days,” said a senior government official.
Importers will have to furnish a certificate from designated international agencies that the imported steel scrap is not contaminated with radioactive traces of elements like Cobalt-60.
The decision comes after traces of radioactive elements were detected in the packaging material of Indian export consignments to countries in Europe as late as January this year.
The root of the problem, according to exporters, lies in some contaminated steel scrap that India imported from a country in East Europe a couple of years earlier. This steel scrap was used to manufacture packaging material for export goods, especially engineering goods.
In 2007, as many as 200 consignments of about eight to nine companies were found to be contaminated with radioactive elements in the US.
Since then, many other export consignments have been found to be contaminated with radioactivity.
“The Indian goods do not have radioactivity. But if the packaging material has traces of radioactive elements, then the items inside it may also get contaminated,” officials said.
Source : Business Standard.