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Reuters

"The government is very close to putting these imports under open general licence," he told Reuters on the sidelines of a Metal Bulletin seminar here.

Imports of zinc ash and battery scrap by India have been at a standstill for at least two years after the authorities slapped restrictions on them for environmental reasons.

But government studies clearing the way for a resumption of imports have been completed and the final decision now lies in the hands of the environment ministry, Thadhani said.

He did not think the current political turmoil in India would delay the decision. No government comment was immediately available.

Thadhani said the curbs on waste imports had boosted buying of refined lead and zinc from foreign suppliers, with the country importing 100,000 tonnes of lead in the year to last March for example, mostly from Australia.

The Indian car industry was continuing to grow, lifting the country's demand for lead to about 170,000 tonnes in the year to March 2000 from about 160,000 tonnes the previous year.

Thadhani said his company planned to produce about 17,000 tonnes of refined lead from concentrates in the year to March 2000, up from 12,000 the previous year and 15,000 in the year before that.

But if restrictions on lead scrap were removed, he could lift output to 35,000 tonnes in the year to March 2000 and expand output capacity.

But far more preferable than allowing imports of scrap, said Thadhani, was to organise the internal market properly so smelters could source scrap locally rather than from foreign suppliers.

Currently, used batteries in India were sold mainly to a legion of unorganised, backyard smelters, who had low overhead costs and were unfettered by environmental regulation.