New Delhi, Feb 28 (IANS): Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram Thursday proposed a drastic reduction of duty on export of pre-forms of precious and semi-precious stones from 10 percent to two percent to encourage exports.
The finance minister also proposed to reduce by 2.5 percent the duty on specified machinery for manufacture of leather and leather goods, including footwear, giving a boost to the leather goods exports.
Chidambaram announced a total withdrawal of export duty on de-oiled rice bran oil cake.
He proposed a duty of 10 percent on export of ilmenite ore and 5 percent on export of upgraded ilmenite, in view of the several fold increase in the prices of unprocessed ilmenite in the export market and the need to conserve the natural resource.