Vedanta urges Centre for reasonable tax regime

Mining firm Vedanta on Wednesday urged the government for a reasonable taxation regime, saying that iron ore mining companies shell out as high as 45 <g data-gr-id="11">per cent</g> in taxes. “We incur export duty tax of 10 per cent, we incur Goa permit fund and SPV fund of another 10 per cent, we have royalty of 15 per cent, we have district mineral fund....so all put together we have a total of 45 <g data-gr-id="12">per cent</g>,” Vedanta Iron Ore Business CEO R Kishore Kumar told reporters here.

“In Karnataka, we have Forest Development Tax (FDT) of 10 per cent on which hearing is going on in court as we are one of the petitioners,” he added. “Mineral sector is under such heavy burden of taxation...be progressive in taxation, that is what the request is from our side,” 

he said. 

Speaking about the cap on mining of iron ore, Kumar said it is time for the courts to understand the challenges of the industry and for the government to understand the challenges of taxation. “Give us the capacity, give us the reasonable taxation regime...,” he said. He said Indian companies are incurring 45 <g data-gr-id="14">per cent</g> on <g data-gr-id="17">taxes,</g> while in Australia, <g data-gr-id="58">Brazil</g> and South Africa it is 7.5 <g data-gr-id="15">per cent</g> when the price is same globally.