more indian taxes on iron ore exports

From Steel Guru last Friday-----

"India raised freight rates on iron ore meant for exports by INR 100 per tonne to INR 1,600 effective Thursday, a move likely to add to exporters' difficulties and pump the steel making commodity's global prices.

An official said ?The railways have increased the existing distance based charge further by INR 100 per tonne on the booking of iron ore traffic meant for other than domestic consumption for all distance slabs.?

According to Mr RK Sharma secretary general of the Federation of Indian Mineral Industries ?The hike in freight is very high. It is yet another blow to our industry. We don?t have much to say.?

For the railways, iron ore is the second highest source of freight income. The railways had earned INR 8,345.27 crore from iron ore and aims to generate INR 8,423.83 crore in the current fiscal.

The decision, coming on the heels of India hiking export duty on fines and lumps to 20% in the 2011/12 federal budget, is seen as a blow to exports in a country where demand for banning iron ore exports has grown over the last year.