The Hindu Business Line : Govt may not hike iron ore export duty: Paswan

New Delhi March 20 The Government may not heed to the demand made by the Indian Steel Alliance (ISA) to raise export duty on iron ore from Rs 300 per tonne to Rs 600 per tonne on the grounds that such a move may hurt the interest of the mining industry. This was indicated by the Minister for Steel, Mr Ram Vilas Paswas, on Tuesday.

Replying to queries on the Government stand on ISA's demand, the Minister said, "The mining industry gives employment to 5.5 lakh people. I do not intend to hurt the interest of the mining industry but I also do not want hurdles in the growth of the domestic steel industry."

"There should not be a situation that Indian steel manufacturers would have to import iron ore in the future," he said.

"I am not against export of iron ore, but the needs of the domestic steel sector and their expansion plans would have to be factored in while allowing export of ore," he said.

Mr Paswan had earlier stated that iron ore exports should be stopped to protect the long-term interests of the steel industry. The Minister was talking at a programme organised by the Institute of Steel Development & Growth (Insdag) to launch a nationwide campaign to promote the consumption of steel.

Iron ore reserves

Stating that out of the country's total iron ore reserve of 23 billion tonnes the actual amount of high grade FE64+ ore is not very high, the Minister pointed out that "it has to be estimated how much steel India would be producing in the next 50 years and how much of what quality would be required for that."

"Our National Steel Policy envisages a production level of 110 mt by 2020, but we are likely to achieve a production of 175 mt by the same period," he said.

Investment opportunities

Speaking on the occasion, the Steel Secretary, Mr R.S. Pandey, said both production and consumption of steel has witnessed a growth of 10-15 per cent during the past few years in the country and that is why a large number of investors were planning to invest here.

Later, talking to newspersons, the Jindal South West Steel Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, Mr Sajjan Jindal, said the Government would have to adopt a policy of creating surpluses rather then tackling shortages of iron ore.

Demanding quantitative restrictions on iron ore export, he suggested that the royalty rates should be hiked to discourage ore export. Mr Jindal said that majority of Indian integrated steel manufacturers use iron ore fines and last year on an average 80 per cent of the ores used were in the form of fines.

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