The directive has come from steel minister Ram Vilas Paswan who is of the opinion that all the employees be given a gold coin to reward their hard labour. The steel major’s plan to gift gold comes at a time when its net profit slumped by 56 per cent to Rs 843 crores for the said quarter. According to market reports, the cost of a gold coin would be more than Rs 10,000, which would be channelised by the State Bank of India.

Delivering his address at the function to ask the behemoth’s Golden Jubilee today, Paswan asked SAIL to face the challenges that are confronting the steel sector in the context of the recent economic downturn. But he maintained that despite the downturn, the steel industry is on track in expanding its capacity and SAIL is firmly on its way to ramp up its capacity to 26 million tonne at an expenditure of Rs 78,000 crore. Endorsing his sentiments, steel secretary P K Rastogi asked SAIL to remain optimistic in achieving its economies of scale and maintain its profitability. “This is the right time to expand when we should upgrade and resort to technological innovations and make the best use of the time,” he reasoned.

Expressing optimism, SAIL chairman S K Roongta, said the demand for steel has started improving and the company expects its fourth quarter sales volume to be higher than the third quarter. SAIL is in the midst of expanding its capacity to 26 MT from 13 MT and the ministry hopes that the country would produce 124 MT by 2012.