Govt cuts export duty on steel, iron ore; hikes import duty on some raw materials

Six months after imposition of the levy, the government has cut the export duty on steel products and iron ore with effect from Saturday.

As per a finance ministry notification issued late night on Friday, exports of specified pig iron and steel products as well as iron ore pellets will attract 'nil' export duty.

Also, export duty on outward shipment of iron ore lumps and fines with less than 58 percent iron content will be 'nil'.

In the case of iron ore lumps and fines with more than 58 percent iron, the rate of duty will be 30 percent.

As per the notification, import duty on anthracite/PCI, coking coal and ferronickel, used as raw material in the steel industry, has been hiked to 2.5 percent, while for coke and semi-coke it has been raised to 5 percent, from 'nil' earlier.

The duty cut follows a meeting of Steel Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman earlier this week. The meeting was attended by Revenue Secretary designate Sanjay Malhotra, among other senior officials.

The finance ministry had in May hiked the export duty on pig iron and steel products to 15 percent from 'nil', a move which was intended to discourage exports and increase domestic availability to help lower prices.

The tax on export of iron ores and concentrates was hiked to 50 percent from 30 percent, while on iron pellets a 45 percent duty was imposed.

Steel industry has been demanding a rollback of the duties, saying local demand was not sufficient for domestic production.