The Indian government has set up an advisory committee to recommend reforms that will boost domestic iron ore production to support its target of achieving 300 million mt of steel output by 2030, government officials said on Friday, September 5.
According to the officials, the advisory committee will be headed by the additional secretary to the ministry of mines and comprise representatives of the ministry of steel, environment forests and climate change, the ministry of commerce, and the ministry of coal.
It will also invite representatives from government companies like iron ore miner NMDC Limited and steel producers Steel Authority of India Limited and private players like Tata Steel and JSW Steel Limited, the officials added.
This committee has been directed to meet every fortnight and ensure the easing of hurdles in increasing iron ore production stemming from issues relating to regulation, mandatory clearances, policy differences between states and the central government, and taxation.
The committee has been mandated to identify regulatory challenges in increasing output, enabling the government to launch reforms of regulations, and also ensure better coordination between the center and state-level agencies.
It has also been directed to advise central and state-level mining entities on measures to be initiated to boost production. In cases where it feels that mines currently owned and operated by these government companies are unable to increase output within a ‘reasonable timeframe’, the central government is also open to reallocate these mines by putting these assets up for fresh auction, so that new investors would be granted licenses based on higher output benchmarks, the officials said.
It is projected that Indian iron ore demand will grow by 50 percent by 2030 to 425-430 million mt, up from about 280 million mt produced in the last fiscal year.