It is really surprising... on one hand the government is creating Special Economic Zones (SEZs) to give special benefits, on the other hand these so called special zones are shrouded with uncertainty on several fronts. As we all know the Centre has levied an export duty of Rs 300 per tonne on iron ore and Rs 1,000 on chrome ore.

But, there is no clarity yet on whether the duty will be levied on iron and chrome ore destined for units in the SEZs.

Interestingly Minister of State for Commerce, Jairam Ramesh, was also not aware of this. "I am not aware of it", Ramesh, told a press gathering during his visit to Orissa recently.

SEZs are considered to be foreign land. Therefore, ideally raw material destined for these zones should be considered as export.

The issue is troubling Posco-India and Jindal Stainless, who are locating projects in SEZs. Posco-India's 12 mt steel project has got in-principle approval for an SEZ and Jindal's stainless steel project has formal approval. While both will use iron ore, Jindal will also use chrome ore.

Posco-India chairman-cum-managing director, Soung-Sik Cho, is not sure whether export duty would be levied on ore used in SEZs. Ideally the duty should not be levied on iron ore meant for Posco-India project as the company would use the raw material from its own captive mines.

Mr. Neeraj Sharma

Neeraj Electronics

CEO, Neeraj Electronics
Jorhat, India

Free Member, Joined :06/09/2007
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