State minerNMDC will adopt adomestic price linked mechanismbeing developed by the steel ministry's Joint Plant Committee.       
 
 The new pricing mechanism being developed, based on what NMDC has already adopted, will link the prices of the country's largest producer to prevailing domestic iron ore prices tabulated by Joint Plant Committee. 
 
 After adopting, a pricing formula linked to the Platts INDEX, the international pricing index for iron ore, for the first two quarters last fiscal, the state miner adopted a domestic price linked mechanism.
 
 However, the new pricing mechanism has not gone down well with NMDC's customers. Some of its customers believe that the "abrupt change" in the pricing mechanism is skewed to benefit NMDC.
 NMDC, they say, first reaped the advantage of an appreciating dollar, charging Rs 500 per tonne on that account, despite Platts Index and the production cost remaining steady.
 
 It then moved to a domestic pricing formula without warning when international prices fell. Customers also allege that the fall in the Platts index was not incorporated in the long term arrangements.