BENGALURU: Citing that the State is facing a loss of Rs 8,000 crore annually due to a ban on iron ore exports, Minister for Mines and Geology Murugesh Nirani said that lifting the ban can bring three times more revenue to Karnataka.
Nirani, who visited The New Indian Express office on Tuesday, spoke at length about his plans for the ministry and said proposing to lift the ban on iron ore exports is on his priority list. “In Karnataka, iron ore is priced at $40-$50 per tonne since export is banned. But in the international market, it is $150- $160.
Karnataka is the ultimate loser. It can gain three times the revenue on the same quantity of iron ore if exported,” the Minister for Mines and Geology said. Karnataka had slapped the ban in 2010 and it was later upheld by the Supreme Court following a multicrore mining scam in Ballari.
The Federation of Indian Mineral Industries in 2020 had requested the State Government to reconsider its decision on the export ban. The federation had estimated that the gross loss over to the state over 10 years was approximately Rs 29,058.8 crore.