As part of its fire-fighting exercise to rein in inflation, the Government on Thursday talked the country's primary steel producers to a roll-back in the prices of long products by Rs. 2,000 a tonne and galvanised corrugated steel by Rs. 500-1,000 a tonne. Speaking to newspersons after a meeting with the steel majors here, Steel Secretary R. S. Pandey said: "Producers of long steel products like TMT bars, prices of which had increased sharply, have agreed that they will roll it back. It is expected that these companies, including Tata and state-run RINL, will provide a relief of Rs. 2,000 a tonne to ensure that [the] common man is not hit.' As for GC steel sheets, the price cut would be to the extent of Rs. 500-1,000 a tonne, he said. Among the major steel producers who attended the meeting were the public sector majors SAIL and RINL along with private sector giants such as Tata Steel, JSW, Jindal Steel and Power, Essar, Ispat and Bhushan Steel. According to Mr. Pandey, the steel producers gave the Government an assurance that they would adopt a transparent pricing system and the prices of various products would be regularly updated on their company websites. Apart from this, as a measure to help the small and medium steel producers, Mr. Pandey pointed out that the steel majors had decided to hike the allocation to them by 20 per cent to six lakh tonnes from the existing 4.9 lakh tonnes. Besides, transport charges of Rs. 400 a tonne in addition to the Rs. 550 already being provided to the small steel producers would be borne by the steel giants. The contract between the steel majors and the small producers, he said, would be for three months. The Steel Secretary noted that the cut in prices of TMT bars and GC sheets which are used for low-cost housing would help the Government in holding the price line. He also pointed out that while the input costs of the major steel producers had gone up by Rs. 15,000 a tonne, the hike in product prices was only to the extent of Rs. 7,000 a tonne last year. The prices of secondary steel products, he said, had already declined by Rs 1,600-2,000 a tonne. In any case, the Government was keenly watching the global price situation. On the issue of iron ore, Mr. Pandey said that the Steel Ministry was in favour of an ad-valorem duty on exports so as to increase the domestic availability of the raw material.