25 critical minerals exempted from duty
Ajay Banerjee
New Delhi, July 23
In the wake of an upcoming partnership with the US on critical minerals, India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during her Budget speech in Parliament today announced the setting up of a ‘critical mineral mission’ and proposed to exempt 25 such minerals from import duties.
The minister said India would set up a ‘critical mineral mission’ for domestic production, recycling of critical minerals and overseas acquisition of critical mineral assets.
Its mandate will include technology development, skilled workforce, extended producer responsibility framework and a suitable financing mechanism.
Minerals such as lithium, copper, cobalt and rare earth elements are critical for sectors like nuclear energy, renewable energy, space, defence, telecommunications and high-tech electronics. The minister said, “I propose to fully exempt Customs duty on 25 critical minerals. This will provide a major fillip to the processing and refining of such minerals and help secure their availability for these strategic and important sectors.”
On June 17, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Indian NSA Ajit Doval had chaired the second meeting of the US-India initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET) in New Delhi and a ‘critical minerals partnership’ was announced.
