India has decided to scrap customs duties on waste and scrap from a range of essential minerals. India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced this change during her budget speech on February 1, 2025, outlining key reforms aimed at supporting the country’s growing industrial needs.

The customs duty elimination applies to a dozen critical minerals, including antimony, cobalt, tungsten, and copper scrap. It also extends to waste and scrap materials from lithium-ion batteries, as well as lead, zinc, and cobalt powder. The policy shift is expected to help secure the availability of these vital raw materials, which are crucial for various industries, including electronics, energy storage, and electric vehicles (EVs).

Sitharaman emphasized that the removal of these duties would play a key role in securing the supply of these materials for manufacturing within India, ensuring that domestic industries have consistent access to recycled raw materials. "This will help secure their availability for manufacturing in India," she stated in her budget address, underlining the importance of such measures in strengthening the country's industrial base.

In addition to the duty cuts, the government announced plans to introduce a policy focused on the recovery of critical minerals from tailings and mining by-products. This move is part of India’s broader strategy to secure a reliable supply of minerals, especially those that are not abundantly available within the country. The policy aims to extract valuable resources from mining waste, which could provide an additional source of materials for manufacturing sectors.

This policy decision builds on last year’s initiative, when India had already scrapped customs duties on 25 critical minerals, further reducing the barriers to importing these essential materials. The country has been working towards securing raw materials such as lithium, which are crucial for the development of batteries, a key component of the rapidly growing electric vehicle sector.

To bolster its efforts in the critical minerals space, India recently approved a significant investment of Rs.163 billion ($1.88 billion) to develop its critical minerals sector. This investment is aimed at ensuring that India is well-positioned to meet the growing demand for these materials, particularly as the country seeks to become a major player in the global electric vehicle and renewable energy markets.

The government’s move is seen as a strategic step toward securing the raw materials needed for India’s industrial growth while also reducing dependency on foreign sources. With these measures, India aims to strengthen its position in the global supply chain for critical minerals and enhance its manufacturing capabilities in emerging sectors like clean energy and electric vehicles.