Govt increases export duty on iron ore, fines lumps by 5 pc

The government has raised the export duty on iron ore lumps to 10 per cent from 5 per cent and on iron ore fines to 5 per cent from nil, said a finance ministry notification.

“This decision has come at a wrong time when the exports were picking up and showing signs of recovery,” said Secretary General of the Federation of Indian Minerals Industries (FIMI) R K Sharma. “This will have cascading effect on the steel industry. Finance ministry should have waited for some time before increasing the export duty and should have allowed the steel industry to recover from the global economic meltdown,” he added.

Steel minister Virbhadra Singh had earlier in a letter to Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee demanded 10 per cent export duty on all grades of iron ore. India currently is third largest exporter of iron ore in the world after Australia and Brazil.