In the Union Budget 2025-26 presented by the Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs Smt Nirmala Sitharaman today, Mining has been identified along with five other domain areas, namely Taxation; Power Sector; Urban Development; Financial Sector; and Regulatory Reforms, for transformative reforms, which will augment India’s growth potential and global competitiveness during the next five years.

To encourage mining sector reforms in States, including those for minor minerals, sharing of best practices and the institution of a State Mining Index has been announced. Further, a policy for recovery of critical minerals from tailings has been announced. Good tailings management will increase domestic availability of critical minerals and also promote the domestic processing industry.

The budget has also announced the elimination of customs duty on several scrap items, which will promote the recycling industry in the country. The elimination of copper, brass, lead and zinc scraps will benefit the domestic secondary producers by reducing their costs. This will also provide a level playing field vis-à-vis international secondary producers, and enable Indian players to compete globally and increase exports of secondary/downstream products. Duty elimination on scraps of 12 critical minerals (including copper), cobalt powder and lithium ion battery scrap will provide feedstock to the critical mineral recycling industry at a lesser cost, making this industry more competitive, and also promote investments in newer capacity.

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Shuhaib T

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