Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on July 23 announced to fully exempt 25 critical minerals from custom duties, and reduce basic custom duties (BCD) on two of them. “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,” Ms. Sitharaman said.
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These critical minerals include antimony, beryllium, bismuth, cobalt, copper, gallium, germanium, hafnium, indium, lithium, molybdenum, niobium, nickel, potash, rare earth elements, rhenium, strontium, tantalum, tellurium, tin, tungsten, vanadium, zirconium, selenium, cadmium, and silicon (other than quartz and silicon dioxide). The custom duty on these minerals was previously in the range of 2.5% and 10%.
For silicon quartz and silicon dioxide, BCD has been reduced from 5-7.5% to 2.5%.
For graphite, BCD has been reduced from 5-7.5% range to 2.5%. On July 22, Coal India Limited announced it secured a graphite block, a critical mineral, in Madhya Pradesh — the company’s first-ever non-coal mineral mining venture.
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India currently recognises 30 critical minerals.
The government will set up a Critical Mineral mission for domestic production, recycling of critical minerals, and overseas acquisition of critical mineral assets, Ms. Sitharaman announced. This will include technology development, skilled workforce, extended producer responsibility framework, and a suitable financing mechanism.