State may impose tax on steel exports

GOVERNMENT is mulling over the imposition of a tax on the exportation of iron ore and steel, in a bid to stimulate the beneficiation of the natural resource and create more jobs.

The Minister in the Presidency responsible for Performance Monitoring and Evaluation, Collins Chabane, said in Cape Town yesterday that a cabinet meeting this week had received a final report from its interdepartmental task team on iron ore and steel, which has recommended the introduction of export taxes on iron ore and steel, “where possible”.

He said the task team had also recommended that the Competition Act and Mineral Resources Petroleum and Development Act be amended to allow for more state interven- tion in the trading of iron ore and steel

The government would also seek to change shareholder compacts of state-owned enterprises in order for such firms to be at the centre of the local beneficiation of mineral resources and the industrialisation of the SA economy.

“It would mean that we want to increase the local beneficiation of iron ore because it becomes the backbone of our economy, it becomes the backbone of our industrialisation especially as [far] as infrastructure is concerned,” Chabane said.

The task team was formed in August 2010 following concerns within government over the high steel prices in South Africa, which were said to be among the highest in the world.