Indian Steel Ministry seeks 20 percent duty on iron ore exports

Tuesday, 30 March 2010 17:03:33 (GMT+2)

The Indian Steel Ministry has asked the country's prime minister Manmohan Singh to lift the export duty on iron ore from India to 20 percent for all grades of the mineral, Indian press reports say.

At present, there is a 10 percent export duty on iron ore lumps and a five percent export duty on iron ore fines.

According to reports, in a letter to PM Manmohan Singh, the steel minister said that at present about 50 percent of iron ore produced in India was being exported, mostly in the form of fines. In the past decade, exports of Indian ore have jumped sharply from 37.49 million mt in 2000-01 to 105.86 million mt in 2008-09, he added.

"Even during the first 10 months of this fiscal, ore export has risen about 10.5 percent (during April-January 2009-10) to about 89.20 million mt. By such unabated export, we are frittering away the advantage of domestic availability of quality iron ore," the minister wrote.

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