New Delhi: India’s export tax on iron ore should be raised to at least 20%, steel minister Virbhadra Singh said on Friday.
India’s steel industry has frequently lobbied for a ban on iron ore export or at least for further raising the export duty on it so that more of the commodity is available for local use at low prices.
India last raised the export duty on iron ore lumps in April to 15% from 10% . Last December, it slapped a 5% export duty on iron ore fines.
India exports about half of its total iron ore output mainly to China that houses the world’s largest steel industry.
In the 2009-10 fiscal year that ended in March, the country produced 226 million tonnes of iron ore, compared with 215 million tonnes in the previous year, the mines ministry data showed.