New, emerging sectors primed for heavy lifting

livemint.com:

₹11.11 trillion. The multiplier effect of this will support demand for commodities such as steel and cement and is also in sync with India’s plan to improve its logistics efficiency. Second, emphasizing the vision for energy transition provides support to India’s journey towards non-fossil fuels, which will allow the country to decarbonise while it pursues faster growth.

The taxonomy for climate finance will support the pursuit of relevant commitments and green transition. It will also aid the quest for 500 GW of installed non-fossil energy capacity by 2030. From the end-user industry perspective, the budget allowed rollover of nil duty for ferrous scrap for one more year.

This will continue to improve the availability of import scrap and complement the long-term focus on reduction of carbon emission from the domestic steel sector. Third, rationalization of import cost of critical minerals and raw materials through duty structure is a big positive. That enables cost reduction in the value chain in many new-age sectors and incentivises more value-addition domestically.

For example, basic customs duty (BCD) on lithium and cobalt is reduced from 5% to nil. Now, battery cells form 80-85% cost of storage batteries. With these two minerals together forming 25-35% of cell cost, the reduction in BCD should enable 1-1.5% decline in production cost.

On the other hand, to incentivise domestic manufacturing in telecom equipment, BCD on specified printed circuit board has been increased from 10 to 15%. Fourth, an employer-focused scheme will incentivise additional employment in all sectors and support companies in the form of reimbursement of contributions to the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation to specified limits. Fifth, a