Indian finance minister has confirmed that there will be no change in export duty on iron ore, which currently stands at 30%. Last month Finance minister and PM had indicated that there is need to look into increase in exports of iron ore in order to get some additional foreign inflow.
But speaking at a meeting of exporters in Mumbai on Friday, Chidambaram said there was a need to maintain the current duty but did not elaborate. In response to a question on the duty, he said there was “no case to roll back”.
Sources close to this matter highlight that reducing duty on exports of iron ore would not have increased volumes from India. There are other constrains as well. Indian exporters are quite disappointed with the news. They say exports of iron ore have dropped significantly in last 2 years and will continue to go down further in coming years.
Indian exports of iron ore have fallen down to around 18 million tonnes in 2012-2013.
Reuters
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