Mumbai: The budget has proposed an excise hike on steel from 8-12 per cent. With duties on some inputs also hiked, the price of steel is likely to rise to Rs 1000 per ton.

T Mukherjee, deputy managing director, Tata Steel expressed surprise at the excise hike, but was non committal on any rise in prices as yet.

"Tata Steel has long term contracts with sectors, and there is a very small basket for distributors. We have not yet decided on any price hike," said Mukherjee.