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.
