Mining could start rolling now as Centre exempts export duty on Goa’s ore
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 29 February 2016 15:20 ISTGoa’s mining industry gets a major boost with the BJP government finally exempting export duty on iron ore.
Union finance minister Arun Jaitley made the announcement in the union budget he presented today morning.
Since it was not part of the speech he read out in the Parliament, the mining industry at the Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry had expressed disappointment earlier.
However, the budget speech published on the website showed the exemption in the table that summarised the changes in Customs, Central Excise and Service Tax rate structures and law and procedure.
As per the table, there are two exemptions announced by the Narendra Modi government.
One is reduction of export duty on iron ore fines Fe content below 58%, which is made Nil from 10% duty.
The second one is the export duty made Nil from 30% on the iron ore lumps with Fe content below 58%.
“This is a big big news and we deeply thank the central government for helping Goa to resume the mining sector, which had literally come to a grinding halt since 2012”, said Nana Bandekar, president of the GCCI.
According to Bandekar, one of the leading miners of Goa, the actual exports of fresh ore could now start from October this year, after monsoons.
What would start immediately is the moving of e-auctioned cargo lying at several mines, he told goanews.com.
“Mining activity has already started at several mines by many mining firms, which have taken the environmental clearance and paid their stamp duties. But we cannot move it since the e-auctioned ore is lying in our lease areas”, said the GCCI president.
With prices of ore crashing in the international market and Goa’s mining industry left with no other major market than China for the low-grade ore, the mining industry and also the state government had made several please to the centre to exempt them from paying the 10% export duty.
Nana-bab also told goanews.com that the mining industry was waiting for the existing e-auctioned cargo to be moved out from the lease areas, so that nobody could blame them of mixing fresh ore and the old ore.
The miner also hopes that all the e-auctioned ore would be now exported by April, so that the industry could actually start settling down from October, after monsoons.