August 30,
The Finance Ministry has rejected the Steel Ministry’s demand for a hike in the export duty on Iron ore. The Steel Ministry had suggested that the export duty on Iron ore lumps be hiked to 20 %, from the current 15 %.
Since the last duty change was effected only in April this year, the Government has decided not to make any change at this stage, official sources said.
The previous move was aimed at making available more Iron ore lumps, the steel-making raw material for domestic steel makers.
An export duty of 5 per cent was also imposed on Iron ore fines then. In the first four months of the current fiscal, Iron ore exports have increased 4.68 % to 32.86 MT compared with 31.39 MT in the same period a year ago.
However the recent ban by the Karnataka Government may partly impacted the country’s Iron ore export performance in July 2010. Iron ore exports in July 2010 were estimated at 4.74 MT (6.55 MT in July 2009).
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