Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her eighth consecutive budget presentation on Saturday, revealed plans to remove import duties on 12 critical minerals, lithium-ion battery scrap, cobalt products, LED, zinc, and 36 drugs for cancer and rare diseases. She also proposed limiting the imposition of cess or surcharge to one per item, alongside exempting the social welfare surcharge on 82 tariff lines.

Sitharaman announced the full exemption of customs duties on 25 critical minerals and a reduction in the Basic Customs Duty (BCD) on two of them, aiming to boost mineral processing and refining for key sectors. 

She also suggested adding 35 new capital goods for electric vehicle (EV) battery production and 28 for mobile phone battery manufacturing to support the growth of lithium-ion battery production for both EVs and mobile devices.

Additionally, she proposed the full exemption of duties on cobalt power and waste, lithium-ion battery scrap, lead, zinc, and 12 other critical minerals to promote manufacturing and job creation in India. 

Recognising the long production cycle in ship building, Sitharaman recommended extending the BCD exemption on raw materials for ship manufacturing and shipbreaking for another decade.

To address the inverted duty structure under the ‘Make in India’ initiative, she proposed raising the BCD on interactive flat panel displays from 10% to 20%, while reducing the BCD on open cells and other components to 5%.