The governments decision to lower the excise duty on the product of the mini steel plants by 150 per tonne, and to give them financial assistance to diversify their output away from mild towards special steels and alloys, is welcome. It will not by any means end the problems that these state electricity board, and the demand for then products is still highly uncertain. Some of the mills-were teetring on the brink of collapse will be saved, and the managements of the remainder will have something positive to lools forward to and plan for. Why has the government given this relief to the mini steel plants only? For, the problems which integrated steel plants face are no less serious than those confronting the mini plants. They too are saddled with nearly a million tonnes of unsold finshed steel, and as for their costs of production being lower than accounting convention and the government's own tax laws.These conspire to make the provision for depreciation in the calculation of costs wholly unrelated to the actual cost of replacing wornout plant and machinery. Any realistic attempt to do so would require the plant to set aside revenue amounting to not five percent, but around fifteen percent, of the other fixed investment every year to meet future replacement costs. The integrated plants are therfore as much in need of help as the mini plants. Thus the least the government should have done was to make a uniform cut in excise duties with the aim of the overall demand for steel. To favour the mini plants alone is merely robbing peter to pay paull. For a rise in demand for their products will lead to an equivalent fall in off-take from the integrated plant.