India plans to exempt tariffs on 25 key minerals, including tungsten, molybdenum, and rare earth elements.
Recently, India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the first budget following this year’s Indian elections, outlining specific actions and reforms needed to achieve the “Developed India” (Viksit Bharat) strategic goals. The budget includes a complete exemption from import duties on 25 critical minerals. These critical minerals include antimony, beryllium, bismuth, cobalt, copper, gallium, germanium, hafnium, indium, lithium, molybdenum, niobium, nickel, potassium, rare earth elements, rhenium, strontium, tantalum, tellurium, tin, tungsten, vanadium, zirconium, selenium, cadmium, and silicon (excluding quartz and silica). According to the budget speech for the fiscal year 2024-2025, the duty reduction aims to lower input costs, deepen value addition, enhance export competitiveness, correct the inverted duty structure, and promote domestic manufacturing, effective from July 24, 2024. In her budget speech, Nirmala Sitharaman highlighted that minerals like lithium, copper, cobalt, and rare earth elements are crucial for industries such as nuclear energy, renewable energy, aerospace, defense, telecommunications, and high-tech electronics. She proposed a complete exemption from duties on 25 critical minerals and a reduction in basic customs duty (BCD) on two of these minerals. This will significantly boost the processing and refining of these minerals and help ensure supply for these strategically important sectors. Additionally, the budget proposed a...
2024-07-26
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