Global investors shun India as steep taxes make mining unviable

Auctions likely to make mining costlier; delays in granting mines add to sector's woes

A higher tax burden on the mining industry in India compared to other resource-rich countries is making mining an unviable activity and driving away investments from the sector.

A huge gap has been found between the effective tax rate (ETR) on mining in India vis-a-vis other mineral-rich nations such as Australia, Canada, South Africa, the US and Mongolia. Data by the Federation of Indian Mineral Industries (Fimi) shows that the ETR on an iron ore mine in the country, after including a cocktail of levies, comes to 64 per cent in the case of new mines allocated after the amended