Pranav Varshney & Abirami Sekar
1 February, Chennai
The union government proposed National Manufacturing Mission 2025, removing customs duty on critical minerals, including lithium, cobalt, and 12 other minerals, to boost domestic clean technology manufacturing in budget FY26.
The government aims to increase domestic production capabilities through policy support for small, medium, and large industries, focusing on clean technology manufacturing and electric vehicle components, said Nirmala Sitharaman, India’s finance minister. The mission will cover five areas: ease of doing business, workforce development, MSME sector growth, technology access, and product quality.
The proposal eliminates duties on cobalt powder, lithium-ion battery waste, and waste and scrap of minerals including antimony, beryllium, bismuth, copper, lead, and zinc, which was 5% earlier.
“The exemption on critical minerals will significantly accelerate India’s transition to self-reliance in clean technology,” said Amit Kumar, partner at Grant Thornton Bharat.
The mission targets domestic value addition in seven key areas: solar PV cells, EV batteries, motors and controllers, electrolyzers, wind turbines, very high voltage transmission equipment, and grid-scale batteries, said the finance minister. Increased supply of these minerals will give incentives to electric vehicle and smartphone makers to decrease prices and strengthen the supply chain for domestic production.
“The budget’s focus on reducing import duties for scrap and waste materials reflects India’s strategy to secure raw materials through recycling,” says Dr. Deepali Sinha Khetriwal, founder of Ecowork, a start-up that works on the safe dismantling of e-waste.
The mission will enhance domestic production capabilities for clean technologies like solar PV cells and grid-scale batteries, positioning India in global supply chains, said Saurabh Kumar, Vice President of Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP), a partnership of governments, philanthropists, and businesses that aims to transition the world to clean energy.