India Waives Customs Duty on Critical Minerals: Lithium, Copper, Nickel, Graphite

New Delhi, Jul 23 (PTI) The government on Tuesday announced waiving customs duty on 25 critical minerals, including lithium, copper and nickel and also reduced the import tariff on two minerals, including graphite.

The move aims at giving a boost to the processing and refining of critical minerals and help obtain their availability for strategic and important sectors like renewable, nuclear energy and telecommunications.

Critical minerals such as antimony, beryllium, bismuth, cobalt, copper, gallium, germanium, hafnium, indium, lithium and Nickel which attracted BCD (Basic Customs Duty) in the range of 2.5 to 10 per cent was brought down to zero.

With regard to graphite and silicon quartz/silicon dioxide which attracted import tariff of 5 and 7.5 per cent, the customs duty was brought down to 2.5 per cent.

"I propose to fully exempt customs duties on 25 critical minerals and reduce 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," Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said during her budget speech.

Critical minerals such as copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt and rare earth elements are essential components in many of the rapidly growing clean energy technologies – from wind turbines and electricity networks to electric vehicles.

India is a net importer of critical minerals. In a bid to give a push to domestic mining, the mines ministry had last year passed the Mines and Minerals (Development & Regulation) Amendment Bill 2023, through which it can award exploration licences for deep-seated and critical minerals.

Last year, the government had released a list of 30 critical minerals. It includes antimony, beryllium, bismuth, cadmium, cobalt, copper, gallium, germanium, graphite, hafnium, indium, lithium, molybdenum, niobium, nickel, PGE, phosphorous, potash, REE (rare earth elements), tantalum, among others.

Vedanta Chairman Anil Agarwal said in a statement that "I am delighted to see the announcement related to the Critical Minerals Mission."

He added that these minerals should be explored, mined and processed in the domestic market.

According to Rakesh Surana, Partner, Deloitte India the full exemption of customs duties on 25 critical minerals and the reduction of BCD on two of them is a positive step in the short term.

"This will allow Indian industries to access these minerals at competitive prices, thereby meeting our current mineral requirements," he said.