Indian government eases export taxes for KIOCL

The Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Ltd has been granted special permits by the government to export iron ore pellets directly. The permits apply both to the company itself and to any organizations authorized by it for this purpose, which will allow direct export of iron ore pellets and should revive the company's cash flows, as stated in the notification to the General Directorate of Foreign Trade.

The company is exempt from the procedure for exporting iron ore pellets produced by the company through state trading enterprises. Previously, the export of iron pellets was only allowed through state-owned trading enterprises. Kudremukh plans to increase its current pellet production from 3.5 million tonnes to 10-14 million tonnes by establishing a number of joint ventures with state-owned companies based in Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Karnataka.

Recently, the company has achieved high results in the training of labor resources and the use of their experience in production. Managing Director Chatterjee has asked Metals Minister Singh Tomar to consider allocating mining leases with various government agencies to help resolve some of the litigation to revive the firm to open new facilities.

The Bangalore iron ore deposit was halted by a Supreme Court ruling in 2005. And now the launch of the pellet plant in Mangalore and the operation of existing facilities depends on this. The company also asked the government to reduce the export duty on iron ore pellets to 5 percent. KIOCL Limited began exporting iron ore pellets to China from the port of New Mangalore.