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In its attempt to promote domestic manufacturing of lithium-ion batteries to drive electric mobility, the government will add 35 additional capital goods used in the manufacturing of Electronic Vehicle batteries to the duty exemption list, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in her budget speech.
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The FM also announced the setting up of a National Manufacturing Mission covering small, medium, and large industries for furthering ‘Make in India’ by providing policy support, execution roadmaps, governance and monitoring framework for the Centre and States. Within this framework, support will also be extended to Clean Tech manufacturing.
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“This will aim to improve domestic value addition and build our ecosystem for solar photovoltaic cells, EV batteries, motors and controllers, electrolysers, wind turbines, very high voltage transmission equipment, and grid scale batteries,” the FM said.
Further, to promote export of Indian manufactured goods, the FM spoke about setting up an Export Promotion Mission, with sectoral and ministerial targets, driven jointly by the Ministries of Commerce, MSME, and Finance. “It will facilitate easy access to export credit, cross-border factoring support, and support to MSMEs to tackle non-tariff measures in overseas markets.”
The Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India welcomed these decisions. “The introduction of Bharat Trade Net and the Export Promotion Mission will help integrate India’s auto component sector into global supply chains. ACMA welcomes the government’s decision to support MSMEs in overcoming non-tariff trade barriers and facilitate easier access to export credit, enhancing the sector’s global competitiveness,” it said in a statement.
“The proposals for personal Income Tax will put more money in the hands of people thus fuelling consumption leading to economic growth,” ACMA President Shradha Suri Marwah said.
The budgetary allocation for the Ministry of Heady Industries, which anchors various policies for promoting electric mobility, is ₹7,680 crore. This is a 68% increase from Revised Estimate of ₹4,560 crore, and 4.6% from the Budgetary Estimate of Rs 7,242 crore for the FY 2025.
The PM E-drive scheme has received an allocation of ₹4,000 crore. The scheme was approved by the Union Cabinet in September last year and has an outlay of ₹10,900 crore for a period of two years. It seeks to promote adoption of electric two wheelers, three-wheelers, trucks as well as public charging infrastructure.
“Electric Mobility need to achieve faster adoption that warrants immediate action is needed in the form of stronger incentives for fleet electrification and a rapid expansion of charging networks. The industry expected beyond PM E-Drive from budget to a proactive measure to position India as a competitive global player in the EV market. Recent guidelines on charging infrastructure and battery swapping could have taken mission mode with increase investor confidence and accelerate the transition to EVs,” Abhijeet Sinha, Project Director-National Highways for Electric Vehicles for the automobiles and EV Sector, said.
Published – February 01, 2025 06:51 pm IST
