FIMI wants roll back of export duty hike on iron ore

Hitting out at the Finance Minister for increasing export duty on iron ore, the Federation of Indian Mineral Industries has written to Pranab Mukherjee requesting a roll back to the pre-Budget level. “We would be grateful if you consider sympathetically rolling back the increase in export duty to pre-Budget 2011-12 level,” FIMI Secretary General R K Sharma wrote in a letter to the Finance Minister.
The government has quadrupled export duty on fines to 20 per cent in the Budget for 2011-12. India had shipped over 100 million tonnes iron ore in 2009-10 and 70-80 per cent of that was in the form of fines. For lumps, the duty has been raised to 20 per cent from 15 per cent earlier.