NEW DELHI (Commodity Online): To imporve the availability of iron ore to domestic steel industry, India Government should remove the 2.5% import duty on iron ore lumps, fines and pellets by the industry body Associated Chamber of Industry and Commerce in India (ASSOCHAM).
The 2.5% import duty on import of raw materials has caused a burden on the domestic steel companies and they are running below full capacity.
The increase of export duty of iron ore was changed from 20 to 30% to improve the availability of raw materials but still a dearth in supply of raw material remains.
The imports are already expensive for the steel companies and the import duty adds extra burden.
The industry is also hit by the mining ban imposed by the Supreme Court in Karnataka which lead to the shortage of availability of high quality iron ores for the companies.
